Desert Eagle
by SinidyDA
Summary: The sequel to Revolver. The Walking Dead Season 2.
1. Stepping Up

**Desert Eagle**

**I don't own any rights to the original script, characters or any part from the series. The only character i own is Gwen. And some added script lines from the other characters. I just wanna make that clear so nobody gets the wrong idea that i'm just copying everything from the show, because that is not the case. Again i just wanna see how it would all go from a ****different from a new character.**

**So now that this is season 2. We get to see Gwen stepping up to responsibilities and take on a bigger roll as well as Daryl.**

_Setting: What Lies Ahead_

* * *

Chapter 1 Stepping Up

It was day three since we all escaped from the CDC. We came across a town with a gas station, not much but is was some to keep us going. We went back to the to the place were Glenn and I were thought to be taken hostage, were we met Guillermo. The entire place was deserted. In bad condition, some bodies laying around. It must have gotten overrun. But why? With all the muscle they had, how can this possibly happen?

Since night was approaching us, we all stayed the night their, in the hallway. Rick and Shane, came to a conclusion that we ditch some cars to reduce the use of gas.

"Get what sleep you can. Tomorrow, we head to Fort Benning." Rick announced to us all. Almost everyone went to sleep right away.

About an hour or so went by. I still hadn't been able to fall asleep, i kept tossing back forth. I try turn to my back, but still nothing.

"Somethin bothering you?" I turn my head and see Daryl looking at me.

"I cant sleep." He says nothing. Truth was, nothing was bothering me. I saw something in him, that was bothering me. It looked like he wanted to get something off his chest.

"It seems to me that I'm not the one that's being bothered." I confront him about it. He looks at me for a bit.

"Back at the CDC, when the door came down. Everyone rushed to get out. You didn't, you hesitated. Why?" I flip on my side to face him.

"To tell you the truth, I figured it be easier. For a moment Jenner was sounding pretty convincing to stay, rather than risk our lives out here everyday." He narrows his eyes.

"But?"

"But I couldn't. I couldn't leave you alone here. It was also cuz I made a promise to Amy and the others. To keep fighting, and keep hope alive. It wouldn't of made sense to go back on my word." Daryl says nothing. He faces away from me and goes back to sleep.

"You wanted to know." I say before I finally fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning, Shane and T-dog ditch their cars and load up their stuff in the RV. I see Daryl unloading Merle's bike that was now his.

"Were ditching the truck. Bike takes up less gas." I didn't argue with him on that one. What ever important stuff we had, we loaded it up on the bike. Shortly, everyone loaded up, with now only, the bike, the RV and the truck. Heading to Fort Benning, with Daryl and I leading the group. As we were leaving Atlanta, some walkers tried to follow. To bad for them.

It wasn't till we got out on the highway, ways away out of the city, when we came across a roadblock of cars. I put my hand up to let the one's in the RV know, to wait. Daryl moves forward to find a way for the rest of the cars to get through. Thankfully their was. A nice open gap between the cars. Daryl turns around to head back to the RV. Dale pokes his head out the window.

"See a way though?" Daryl looks at Dale, then points his head back. We circle around our cars, and back up to the front to lead the way though. About half way though the yard of abandon cars, I hear a shriek behind us. I look back and see the RV smoking.

"Baby, stop." I notify Daryl. He stops the bike and we get off.

"Problem Dale?" I hear Shane ask as we approach the RV with everyone gathered around.

"Just a small of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of…" Dale stops himself and looks around. "Okay, that was dumb." He corrects himself. Daryl begins to look through the back of an open car.

"If you cant find a radiator hose here…" Shane looks around at all the broken down cars. Daryl pulls out something from the car.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find."

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog grabs a hose nearby.

"Maybe some water."

"Or food." Carol and Glenn add.

"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this." Lori shot everyone down

"It doesn't hurt to look." I snap. "What ever happen to your hope? Jeez you gotta rain on everyone's parade?" I look at everyone. "All these people were heading far way from the city. What's to say they didn't pack any valuable stuff of use. Such as clothing, First-aid, water. Theirs plenty of cars to look around in. Anything could be of use. We may never get this opportunity again. Lets make this count." Everyone remained silent. Lori kept her mouth shut. I walked away, irritated of her bullshit. Its not so much that we can barley find any supplies anywhere, and now that we found a landfill of cars that can possibly have as much as supplies as we need. No she has to go and shoot everyone down with her negativity.

I look around in each car to hopefully find something of use. To all of us. In one specific care I found a bunch of clothes. The clothes we all had were not gonna last us long. We needed as much as we could get. I spot Daryl near me by a car.

"You find anything yet?" I ask him.

"Some band-aids. You?" He hands me the band-aids.

"Found a shirt."

"Pff." Daryl continues to look.

"What?"

"Where suppose to be looking for supplies not shirts." I chuckle a bit.

"Did you not hear what I was saying back their. Anything could be of use."

"Yeah I caught your little speech." He refused to make eye contact. I smiled knowing I have something he may like.

"Well how about these for supplies?" I show him a few arrows. Daryl looks at my hand then up at me. Without a work he takes them.

"Your welcome hot stuff." I walk away to look for more supplies, that could be of use. T-Dog got Daryl to help him open a gas tank, so he can siphon the gas from it. As I continued to look I find Sophia and Carl looking around. I approach them.

"Hay." I look at the little girl before me.

"Hay." She looks up at me a bit intimidated. I didn't want her to be. I meant no harm to her or Carl.

"Find anything you like?" I ask her. She shakes her head.

"No, not yet." I look at a nearby car and spot a doll that she might like. I walk over to it.

"How about this?" I show her the doll and hand it to her. A smiles grows on her face.

"Its pretty thank you." I continue to look around. For some reason, something told me to look back at her. When I did she was looking at my gun. Poor thing was scared of it. I lean down and take it out. I see her stiffen up.

"Don't worry. The safety's on. See." I show her that the gun was secure, and that she had nothing to worry about.

"Sophia, I don't want you to be intimidated by me, I can see that you are. I mean you no harm. I just wanna be your fiend. Its all." She losses up and smiles.

"Can we be friends?" I kindly ask her. She nods her head.

"Yeah." She agrees. I open my arms to her. She walks in and I wrap my arms around her. Our moment was ruined when Rick came running around.

"Lori, under the cars." He sees, Carl, Sophia and I. "Guys get down." I see Carl run under a car. I look around to find a car for the both of us to hid under. I grab her hand.

"Sophia come on." We both hide under a car. Everyone was as well. Walkers must be around. It was then when I began to hear the groans of what sounded like more than one walker. I feel Sophia shake next to me, I put an arm around her and hold her close. "Shh. Just stay quiet now. Its gonna be okay." I whisper. The feet of more than a dozen walkers passed by right in front of our faces. I put one of my hand over Sophia's mouth to keep her quiet. Feet, feet and more walker feet pass by. I couldn't help but think if Daryl knew about the walkers and if he was safe under a car. It was killing me that I didn't know. The loads of feet passing by died out. Soon, I didn't see anymore or hear any groaning. I let go of Sophia and look at her. "Okay I think were safe." I begin to crawl out to the edge from under the car. Sophia was right behind me. Right before I got out, one last walker spots me and lunges down at me. "Shit!" I struggle to get back under the car. The walker growled and reached for me. I tried to get my gun free from under me, while trying to kick the walker away with me feet. I could hear Sophia whimpering behind me. I look behind me and see her backing away to the other side to get out. The walker stops trying to get at me and begins to walk around the other side. "Shit! Sophia no!" I see her get out the other side and take off running into the woods. I get out from under the car as fast as I could and run out into the woods and run after her. It wasn't long when I caught up to her. I wasn't the only one. Rick somehow managed to come after her as well. "Sophia are you okay?" I ask out of breath. She only whimpers. I spot two walkers closing in.

"Rick." I get his attention. He looks at the walkers than back at me.

"I need to lure them away. Stay here. When their out of sight, go back up to the highway." He looks at Sophia.

"Are you okay? I need you to come with me. You ready?" She only whimpered in confusion. He picks her up and runs off. As soon as the walkers were out of sight. I run as fast as I could back to the highway.

"The one time I don't have my machete with me, this has to happen?!" I tell myself as I ran. Eventually I get back completely out of breath. Everyone was gathered around the RV by then. They have received the news about Sophia. As soon as Carol saw me, she ran up to me.

"Where is she? Where is Sophia?" She begged, crying her eyes out.

"Rick Is with her…he's luring the walkers away from here….he told me to come back here." I have a seat on the rail, trying to catch my breath. When I did I walked back to Daryl's bike and grab my machete.

"What happened?" Daryl comes up to me.

"When the herd was passing by. Sophia and I were hiding under a car together. When I tough they had all passed, a straggler saw me and attacked us. Sophia got scared and ran off into the woods, two walkers followed her in. I ran after her."

"Did you find her?"

"I did, Rick ran after us as well. The two walkers were still after her. So Rick told me to come back up here, so he could lead them away from the highway."

"Why didn't you just bring Sophia back with you?"

"I don't know, Rick just picked her up and took off. Maybe because he knew the walkers were after Sophia. I'm not sure." Daryl remained silent.

* * *

About 20 minutes later Rick comes running back, looking like he's seen a ghost. He frantically looked around.

"Is Sophia back?" The group gathers around.

"We haven't seen her." Glenn looks at Rick. Carol begins to cry on Lori's shoulder. Rick looks at everyone.

"Okay, Daryl, Shane, Gwen come with me. Were going back to find her." Shane gets himself a gun. Daryl grabs his crossbow, and we head back in the woods.

We reach a creek, were Rick claimed he had left Sophia. Rick and Daryl jump in the creek while Shane and I took watch.

"Sure this is the right spot?"

"I left her right here. I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." Rick explained a bit frustrated.

"Without a paddle…seems where we've landed."

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her, go that way and keep the sun on here left shoulder." Rick points in the direction back up to the highway.

"Rick why didn't you just let me take her back. That's why I ran after her." I protest.

"I figured the walkers were after her. That they can somehow smell her sent so that's why I wanted to draw them away from the highway as far as possible. It be meaningless to go back up to the highway just for the walkers to come back." He explained himself again. Daryl looks up at me from down the creek.

"Gwen, step off to the side, so I can see the trail." I move aside hoping I didn't mess it up. I guess Sophia came up through here.

"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane points out.

"Shane, she understood me fine." Rick countered.

"Kids tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck."

"Got clear prints right here." Daryl interrupts. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway. Lets spread out, make our way back. She couldn't have gone far." Daryl hops back up from the creek and begins to follow a trail that non of us saw but him.

We followed him for a while until we came to a halt. He kneels down looking at the ground.

"She was doing just fine till right here, all she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way." He points in an off direction.

"Why would she do that?" I ask.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Shane adds.

"A walker?" I answer unsure. What else could of scared her to run off in a different direction. Daryl shakes his head.

"I don't see any other footprints. Just hers."

"So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane looks at Rick.

"No, better if you and Gwen get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all keep everybody calm." Rick suggested to Shane and I.

"I'll keep em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few chores, I'll keep em occupied. Come on." Shane looked at me. Before I walked to him. I look at Rick and hand him my machete. He looks at me.

"Daryl has his crossbow. This is quieter than you gun. If your gonna search the woods, might as well do it stealthy." Rick grabs it.

"Thank you."

"I want it back." I notify him. I walk by Daryl putting my hand on his shoulder and let it slide off as I walk pass by him.

* * *

Mine and Shane's way back up to the highway was a bit quiet. Nether of us ever really talked to each other, this was actually our first time alone. It felt a bit strange. I wasn't use to being around him alone. He finally broke the silence.

"So you and Daryl huh?" He asked me. The tone in his voice sounded friendly. So I might as well pay him back with some kindness myself.

"Yeah, were a bit of an odd couple I know. Its not the first time someone had brought that up to me."

"No I'm not saying anything judgmental. Its just that, how do you put up with him? The way he is and everything. I kinda figured you'd of left him a long time ago, just by the way he treats you sometimes."

"I've learned to live with the way he is. He's not much of an open person. He likes to keep to himself. At least that's how it was when Merle was round. Now that he's gone. I can see he's slowly opening up to me. Not just me, but everyone else." Shane looks at me unconvinced.

"Okay Daryl may come off as a hothead asshole may times. But the truth is, deep inside all that rough exterior. He's a caring person. I wouldn't be around if he didn't care about me as much as he does."

"And how much is that? Cuz it sure doesn't seem like a whole lot."

"Look from all the people that I've talked to about this whole me and Daryl thing, seem like they don't wanna see us together. As if their scared to see such odd couple being happy with each other, even if one person doesn't show it that much. Yeah our relationship is not perfect, but who's is? Nobody's. Daryl loves me, and I love him, its all that matters us." He looked at me as we kept walking.

"Well then, sorry if I ever doubted you guys." He pauses "Not to get into detail, but have…"

"Yes, we've done everything a couple should do. To answer your question. It still surprises some people that we've lasted this long." We both chuckle.

"How long you two been dating?"

"Three years, and I've known him for five." I see Shane eyes widen. Never gets old.

"Wow, that's….that's quite a long time. I'm surprised you two aint married yet. Or at least have a kid." Right then is when he killed the mood. It hurt me to think about that, simply because I knew nether two would ever happen. Shane noticed the sudden mood change in me.

"Hay look sorry I brought that up. I didn't know…"

"No, its fine. It….just sucks thinking about the fact that, that will never happen. Not in a new world like this." Shane grabs my shoulder.

"Hay, all more reason to stick together and love the ones your with that much more." His small words of encouragement made me smile again.

* * *

It wasn't long when Shane and I made it back to the highway. When everyone saw us, they all approached us.

"Alright everybody, listen up. Rick and Daryl are on her trail. There gonna do everything they can to bring her back safely. While we wait for them, why don't we continue to scavenge the rest of these cars, see if we can move some out of the way to clear a path. Dale see if you can get the RV going. Lets move it people. Come on."

Everyone spreads out again to different cars. Shane goes up to Carol as she cries on Lori's shoulder again. I felt bad. I wanted to go back out their to help find Sophia. It was kinda my fault she ran off. I didn't hold on to her when that walker was attacking me. I should of just brought her back when I found her. That was my intension, but Rick had to show up with some half-ass plan. The important part is that Daryl has a trail on her so hopefully they find her. I was just growing fond of her.

I was looking through a car when I see Carl heading my way. He had a sad face on him. Poor little guy. Like Sophia, I was beginning to grow fond of him as well.

"Little man. What ya got their?" I ask him, trying to lighten up his mood.

"An arsenal." He kept walking

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's wrong?" I step in front of him from going any further. I kneel down to his level.

"Shane. I think he's mad at me." I narrow my eyes.

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't know, he's been acting real mean to me lately."

"I don't think he really means to do it. He's probably going through a lot of stress right now. We all are. He'll come around." I rub his head. I manage to get a smile out of him. I look at the arsenal he had in his hands.

"Can I take a look?"

"Sure." I take it from his hands and set it on the hood of a car and unroll it. Carl stood next to me, looking at it as well. There was a lot of goodies I saw that I wanted to keep for myself, but one particular caught my attention. A berretta. The only gun in the pack. I grab it and put it in my gun holster, replacing it with Daryl's gun I was holding on to for a while. Now I have my own.

"I'm keeping this. Don't tell anybody." I whisper. His smile fades gain.

"Mom wont let me keep one." He pouts.

"Awe. She's just overly protected of you, that's all." Their was a moment of silence.

"I'm suppose to go gives these to Dale." I wrap the arsenal back up and hand it to Carl. He makes his way to the RV. Before I could continue to search any other car. I hear a car engine start. It didn't sound like any of the car's we had so I go to check it out. I wasn't the only one. Everyone else came about too. As the car was on, a voice came on the radio, but it was somewhat static.

"This is a civil emergency?" Glenn questions.

"Is it even a local signal?"

"Its got to be within 50 miles of here." Me and Dale add. The voice on the radio came clear.

"Avoid anyone infected at all costs. Remain calm. Help is on the way. The emergency Alert system has been activated. The office of Civil Defense…" Shane cut the radio off. The broadcast was obviously old. Everything it said we already know. And we know it had all failed miserably.

"Asshole. Okay. Lets get back to work." He tells us all. As told we all go back to our duties.

* * *

It was late in the afternoon. I managed to find some decent bandages. Glenn asked me to properly clean and bandage up T-Dog in the RV. I didn't know the story as to why he got such a gnarly cut on his right forearm. As I was attending to it, he looked at me.

"What?" I ask.

"Were you a nurse or doctor before all this?"

"No, why?"

"Well I was just wondering. You bandaging me up properly. Back at the senior center when you help out the old man. I figured you had some medical history in the past." I chuckle.

"Nah. I did study it a little bit, like back in school, but that was it. Most of it came natural, hanging out with Merle and Daryl. When ever they got deep cuts or stuff like that. I always attended to them." T-Dog nodded his head.

"Well your pretty good at it."

"Thanks. How did you manage to get such a nasty cut in the first place?"

"When the herd was passing by. I was trying to avoid them. I didn't know everyone was hiding under the cars, so I just kept hiding behind them. Then I somehow slipped and as I was trying to catch myself I sliced my arm open on a broken glass window. I was beginning to bleed out. Some of the geeks must of smelled my blood and found me. I really thought I was done for. But then here comes your boy, seriously out of nowhere and nails it in the back of the head. Before any other geeks could smell me, he throws it on on top of me and one on top of him. Sure enough they walked right passed us. They didn't even smell us. After the herd passed, he helped me back to the RV. That's when we found out that Sophia had ran off and you and Rick chased after her." I didn't say anything. Their really wasn't anything else to say.

"So I must admit." T-Dog continued. "I don't think Dixon is such a bad guy after all."

"Of cores not. If he was anything like Merle he would of let you die, but he's not. He saved you life."

"And I thank him for it. Dixon….I mean Daryl is alright by me." I sigh.

"If only everyone else could see that." I look out the RV window and see Rick and Daryl approach the rail gate.

"Their back." I was relived that nothing had happened to them. But the downfall was that their was no Sophia. T-Dog and i head out the RV and join everyone else near the rail gate.

"But she's 12. She cant be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" I hear Carol's shaky voice as I approached them.

"I know its hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick tried to explain to Carol, who continued to cry.

"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl added still on the other side of the rail.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this." Carol looks down at Daryl and spots something. Her eyes widen.

"Is that blood?" Daryl looks down then back up at her. He doesn't say anything. I could hear Carol's breathing deepen.

"We took down a walker." Rick confesses.

"Walker? Oh my god." Carol looked like she as about pass out. Lori sticks close by to make sure Carol wouldn't pass out on us.

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick looks up at Carol who was looking down.

"How can you know that?" Andrea objected, sounding like she was questioning them. Rick looks at Daryl for answers.

"We cut that son of a bitch open, made sure." Carol has a seat on the rail. Lori has a seat next to her. I see her expression darken, looking up at Rick.

"How could you juts leave her out their to begin with?" She looks at me with the same dark expression. "Both of you."

"What?" I was shocked that she was also blaming me for Sophia's disappearance. After all I did show up back here without her.

"How can you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us." Rick tried to explain.

"If I had brought her back with me, they would of followed us." I add trying to explain myself.

"I had to draw them off. It was her best chance. For all of us." Rick went on. Shane has a seat on the rail.

"Sounds like the didn't have a choice Carol."

"How was she suppose to find her way back on her own?" She continues to plead. She looks at me again. "You couldn't have gone with them instead? I thought you were suppose to be the toughest woman here!"

"I had to come back, Rick told me to, I was…."

"She's just a child" she cut me off as I tried to explain myself. Now she just made me feel like a total piece of shit. I couldn't stand being around her any longer. Not with this guilt I had in me. I walk away back to Daryl's bike and have a seat. Why? Why is it that when I try to help, it fires back at me twice as hard. I figured after being treated like shit for so many years I'd get use to it. But I haven't, each time it different. Each time it hurts in different ways. I'm sorry Sophia, I'm sorry that I told you the close was clear when it wasn't. I'm sorry I didn't just bring you back with me. I should have. We would have been on our way by now.

"Hay." I look up and see Daryl standing before me with my machete.

"I hope we find her soon."

"We will. I got a pretty good lead on her trail. We had to come back because the sun is close to setting." Since Daryl was close enough to me. I wrap an arm around his waist and rest my head on his belly.

"Carol was right." I speak

"On what?"

"Why didn't I just go with Rick and stayed with Sophia?"

"Its not your fault she ran off."

"But should of stayed. It was only two walkers. I could of easily taken them out with that." I look at my machete.

"Why didn't you?"

"Because Rick came along and had this crazy ass idea and.."

"Okay first of all." He cuts me off "Stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. What ever happens, happens. You cant fix it. Well find her tomorrow and we'll be on our way. Got it?" I slowly node my head. "Lets get to the RV, its gonna be dark soon." He helps me up as we head to the RV.

* * *

The next morning, everyone gathered around the hood of a car near the RV. Rick puts the arsenal on the hood and unrolls it.

"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick stepped back to let the rest of the group take their pick.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need, What about the guns? Andrea complained. I had had enough of her bitch attitude lately.

"We been over that." Shane pointed out near the RV door.

"Would you rather go shooting off guns to echo through the woods so every walker near by could hear and lead them straight to us. Do you want another herd to come pass by and lose someone else? Is that what you want?" I tell her. She says nothing but glares at me.

"Daryl, Rick, Gwen and I are carrying. Since were the only one's who know how to shoot. Besides Gwen is right, we cant have you people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane tells the group.

"Its not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea countered. Are her ears fucking painted on? Did Shane and I not make it perfectly clear that you guys cant have guns because you don't know how to use them?!

"Listen to what Gwen just said. Somebody fires off at the wrong moment, and a herd happens to be walking by. That's game over for all of us."

"Easy for you guys to say. You got guns." Andrea argues.

"Get over it." I snap. She remains quiet.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. Its her only landmark." Daryl broke the tension between Andrea, Shane and I.

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick announces to everyone.

"Everybody assemble your packs." Shane added, assembling his. Daryl and I walk to a blue Dodge truck. Instead of both of us assembling two different packs, we only did one. All Daryl really needed was his crossbow and hunting knife. So most of the stuff in the pack was mine. Everyone was doing the same when we hear Dales voice raise.

"You chose suicide."

"So what's the to you? You barley know me." Andrea argues back.

"I know Amy's death devastated you." Everyone, including Daryl and I looked in their direction.

"Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy. This is about us. And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?"

"I saved you life."

"No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? What I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?"

"Maybe just a little gratitude."

"Gratitude? I wanted to die my way. Not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale."

"But-"

"But you know better? All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away from me, Dale. And you expect gratitude?" Dale looked at her, stunned by what she had just said. Everyone was silent.

"I don't know what to say." He admits.

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I'm sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say." Andrea walks away passing us. The rest of us follow.

* * *

In the woods, Daryl led the group. We all formed a line, to keep from anyone getting lost. It wasn't long until we approached a yellow tent. Daryl points at the tent and kneels. Rick signals everyone to do the same. Everyone except for Shane.

"She could be in there." He points out.

"Could be a whole bunch of thins in there." Daryl corrects. He slowly makes his way up to the tent. Rick and Shane follow close behind. I stay behind to guard the group. Rick and Shane stop a few feet in front of us as Daryl went up to the tent. I was able to see him searching around the tent, but nothing. Rick turns around and signals Carol to join them. Daryl waits outside the tent door.

"Call out Sophia." Daryl looks at her. Shane turns around and signals me to bring the rest of the group up with them. I stand next to Carol and Rick as we all regroup.

"Sophia, its Mommy." Carol speaks out, but no answer. "Sophia. We're all here, baby. Its Mommy." Again no answer. Rick approaches the tent. Daryl slowly unzips the tent door and opens it. He coughs for the rotting smell coming from inside, but he goes inside anyway. With no answer coming from inside, Carol begins to worry.

"Daryl?" No answer "Daryl?" she calls to him again. Moments later he comes out with nothing.

"It aint her."

"What's in there?" I ask him

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Aint that what he called it?" He briefly explained. Off in the distance, everyone hears church bells ringing. Everyone looks at each other and takes off in the direction from witch the ringing is coming from. As we continued to run, the bells sounded like they were coming form various directions. We all stop trying to pinpoint where they were actually coming from.

"Witch direction?" Shane asks.

"I think its coming from that way. I'm pretty sure." Rick looks forward.

"Its hard to tell out here."

"If we hear them, maybe Sophia does too." Me and Carol add.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn points out.

"Or signaling that they found her?" I consider the possibilities.

"She could be ringing them herself. Come on." Rick opposed. We all continue to run forward. Running and running, we emerge from the woods and spot a big white building, this was the church from witch the bell ringing was coming from.

"That cant be it. Got no steeple, no bells." Shane points out. Rick ignores him and moves forward. He eventually begins to run again, as did the rest of us, cutting across a cemetery. We all reach the church out of breath. Rick and Daryl go up to the main entrance. The rest of us wait at the bottom of the stairs as they swing open the big red doors. The three figures inside the church slowly turn around, reviling that they were walkers. Rick walks to the left side of the room as one walker approaches him. I hand Daryl my machete, he takes it and hands me his crossbow, taking the right side or the room. Leaving Shane to take the middle. Rick kills his walker in an instant. Shane stabs his walker in the head without breaking a sweat. Daryl approaches his female walker, getting her attention by making kissing sounds. With one strong swing of the machete, he just about cuts the walker's head in half. It falls forward to him as he jumps back, not wanting it to touch him.

"Sophia!" Rick yells out. Daryl walks to the front, up to the alter. I heard him mumble something to the Jesus Christ statue but I couldn't make out what it was.

"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. Its got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane looked at Rick, unsatisfied. Right then, the bells begin to ring again. It was for sure here. The bells were so loud. It couldn't have been anywhere else. Daryl bolts out the door as Glenn and I follow along with the rest of the group. Outside Daryl spots the bell ringing. It was an automated bell. Not a real one. Glenn checks the circuit box and cut the power to the ringing.

"A timer. Its on a timer." Daryl informs everyone.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol speaks out, heading back inside the church. It just seemed the everyone's hopes of finding Sophia had been crushed. She was nowhere to be seen. Everyone spreads around to rest. We been at this for half the day now. We were all exhausted. Daryl and I switch back weapons. I take out a water bottle from out pack and hand it to him.

"Thanks." He downs almost half the bottle in one, to two gulps. Boy was he thirsty.

"If we don't find her today-"

"We will." He cuts me off, knowing what I was about to say.

"Do you have any idea where she could be?" I ask.

"From last I saw, she should still be by the creek." He pauses "Lets go inside. Its hot as hell out here." The both of us go in the church, it was a bit cooler than outside, but not much. Still, it was better than staying out in the blazing sun.

* * *

Inside the church, I saw Carol up at the alter speaking to the statue. With Daryl and I being in the back, I couldn't hear a word she was saying. It was very faint. Shortly Lori comes in and has a seat at the very front. While we waited, I looked around the church. Though it wasn't much and was defiantly not the time to think about it. I couldn't help but imagine Daryl and i finally getting married. I know it will never happen. But still, its something that kept a smile on me face.

"What are you smiling about?" Daryl asks. I didn't realize that, that smile actually came across my face. I didn't know what to tell him, it was not the place or time to be smiling about anything.

"Um, nothing."

"Your lying." He pushed on, for me to tell him.

"I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Stuff."

"Anything I should know about?" I debated whether I should even bring up the subject about marriage. I never talked to him about it before. Simply because Merle was always around. And now that he's gone and I can see Daryl slowly becoming his own person. I couldn't decide to tell him.

"If I told you. You'd probably just brush it off, or get angry. And I don't want nether, not right now." He narrowed his eyes looking at me.

"Try me." He pushed.

"Oh trust me, I don't think I wanna go their now."

"Its to late. You already brought it up." The more he was pushing me to tell him, the more I wanted to just give in. I took a deep breath. I looked at him for a moment. I saw that he was waiting for me to start speaking.

"Now is not the time to talk about it." His expression drops.

"Your kidding?"

"No. I'm not. It's really not the time to talk about it." Everyone begins to make their way outside. I was gonna follow when Daryl grabs my arm.

"What's so damn important that you wont even tell me. Are you pregnant?"

"No. Daryl it hasn't even been long enough for me to find out. Besides even if I was, you probably hate me for it." He reminds silent. "And no, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about in the first place." I walk out to join the group, they were all standing under the shade of a tree. A few feet away Rick and Shane were talking to each other. I join the group and seconds later, Daryl was standing behind me. Rick and Shane finish their conversation.

"Ya'll gonna follow the creek bed back. Okay. Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."

"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl questions Shane's decisions.

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I want to stay, too. I'm her friend." Carl spoke up. Rick and Shane look at each other, then back at Carl.

"Just be careful." Lori gives him the okay.

"I will."

"When did you start growing up?" She gives him a hug. Rick approches her and gives her a kiss.

"I'll be along soon enough. Here, take this." Rick hands her his only gun. "Remember how to use it?" Lori shakes her head.

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." Daryl steps to her handing her the extra gun he had found earlier.

"Here, got a spare. Take it." Lori looks at Daryl in a way I've never seen before. In a thankful way. She takes the gun. He and I begin to walk away as the others follow. I look at him.

"That was sweet of you." I tease him

"Rick offered her a gun. She refused cuz she didn't want to leave him unarmed. Figured I give her the spare. I sure as hell aint gonna need it." He looks at me, pointing his head at my berretta. "And you have yours." I smile at him as we continued to walk.

* * *

It was already passed mid-day as we continued to walk through the woods. Nobody said anything. Until Carol did.

"So this is it? This the whole plan?" I looked behind me and saw Carol resting on a log.

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl answered her question leaning up against a tree.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea opposed. She looks over at Lori. "I see you have a gun." She then looked over at me with her bitchy attitude "And I know you do Gwen. That berretta you found in the arsenal." How the hell did she know I got it from the arsenal.

"Why do you want mine? Here take it." Lori leaned up giving Andrea the gun. "I'm sick of the looks your giving me." She wasn't the only one. Andrea takes the gun. Lori sits down on the same log Carol is resting on.

"Honey, cant imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick….." She pauses and looks at me "And Gwen. It is in your face every time you look at them. When Sophia ran, nether of them hesitated did they? Not for a second. I don't know that ether any one of us would have gone after the way they did. Or make the hard decision that Rick had to make that anybody could have done it any differently. Anyone else?" Nobody answers. "Ya'll look to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Lori took a drink out of her water. Nobody said anything for a moment.

"Rick, aint the only one who's been blamed for not being perfect." I point out. Informing that it was Daryl who's been blamed for many things. When all he really wants to do, is do his best to keep everyone satisfied without having them bitch at him. Andrea hands Lori back the gun, she takes it.

"We should keep moving." Lori and Carol get up as they walk in our direction. Daryl looks at me to keep moving. I do as he followed. Not long after we continued our walk, we hear a gun shot echo in the distance. It didn't sound far from were we where. Something didn't feel right.


	2. I'm Not Weak

**Desert Eagle**

**I don't own any rights to the original script, characters or any part from the series. The only character i own is Gwen. And some added script lines from the other characters. I just wanna make that clear so nobody gets the wrong idea that i'm just copying everything from the show, because that is not the case. Again i just wanna see how it would all go from a ****different from a new character.**

_Setting- Bloodletting_

Chapter 2 I'm Not Weak

We all continue to walk despite the possibilities of the gunshot we all heard. We all stop when Andrea had said something.

"You still worried about it?" I look back and see Lori looking back towards where the gunshot came from.

"It was a gunshot." She spoke.

"We all head it." Daryl spoke from behind me. Lori turns back around to face us.

"Why one? Why just one gunshot?"

"Maybe they took down a walker."

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane. They'd do it quietly." She argued back.

"He wasn't trying to patronize you. We're not so sure it was even a gunshot. Let alone it was them who pulled the trigger." I protested. I was sick of her always acting like she was better than us.

"It was a gunshot." She spat back at me.

"How do you know that it was them? It could have been anybody. It could have been more survivors. They could of also heard the bells, same as us." I countered.

"If it wasn't them, shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol broke the tension.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes." Daryl pointed out. Lori looks at him.

"So what do we do?"

"Same as we've been. Beat around the bush for Sophia, work our back to the highway." Daryl concluded. We continue to walk on.

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at he RV." Andrea looked at Lori. So now she was being nice to everyone. Better if she kept it that way. Lori walks past us as we were beginning to walk when Andrea spoke again.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel."

"I suppose you do. Thank you." Carol looks up at me and Daryl "The thought of her out here by herself…it's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and prying she doesn't wind up like Amy." Just then Carol realizes what she had said in front of Andrea. "Oh my god. That's the worst thing I ever said." She corrects herself. Andrea shakes her head in forgiveness, understanding that Carol didn't mean what she said.

"We're all hoping and praying with you, for what its worth." I hear Daryl grunt and walk up to Andrea and Carol.

"I'll tell you what its worth…not a damn thing."

"Daryl." I call his name out, almost offended myself by his sudden rudeness.

"it's a waste of time all this hoping and praying." He looks at Carol dead in the eye. "Cause we're gonna locate that little girl, she's gonna be just fine." He than looks at both of them "Am I the only one zen around here? Good Lord." Daryl continues to walk on. I look at Carol and see she was stunned by what he said. I catch up to Daryl.

"What was that?"

"What?"

"The way you juts shot her down."

"I didn't shoot anyone down. Just made it perfectly clear, that we'll find her."

"But the way you made it sound-"

"No the way their making it sound is if as we'll be finding a body." He snaps.

* * *

It was already late afternoon. The sky was orange again, but it was still hot as hell. We kept walking, and walking. I felt like it was never gonna stop. Hear and their I got a bit light headed, this heat was killing me, and our water bottle was just about empty, the remaining of it was boiling hot. So their was no way I was gonna drink that. Daryl then stops as we all do.

"We'll lose the light before too long. I think we should call it."

"Lets head back."

"We'll pick it up again in the morning?" Carol looks at Lori. She nodes.

"Yeah, we'll find her tomorrow." Daryl whistles at them to get their attention. Again we continue to walk, this time back to the highway. Thank God I am exhausted. As we walked I look over at Glenn. He hadn't said much throughout this search.

"You look exhausted."

"I am. I didn't get much sleep, helping Dale keep watch last night. I'm sure it will be the same thing tonight." He looks at me "You don't look like your full of energy ether."

"Well I guess its just all of us. We have been at this all day and my water is low. So yeah, I guess you can say I am exhausted too." We both smile. "So if you didn't get much sleep last night. Why didn't you stay back with T-Dog and Dale?"

"I wanted to help find Sophia. More people means more ground to cover."

"Yeah but it wont help that some don't have their A-game on."

"And you do?"

"I did. Until about an hour ago." Glenn doesn't say anything for a moment.

"I'll be fine."

"Suit yourself."

"How much farther?" Andrea asks

"Not much. Maybe 100 yards, as the crow flies."

"Good, this scorching heat is killing me." I point out.

"Too bad we're not crows." We walked on, nobody said much, or even anything at all. I couldn't wait to get back to the highway and cool down. I feel like i was about to pass out. I was near Daryl when all the sudden we all hear Andrea scream.

"Andrea?" I call out. Daryl takes off in her direction, as we all do.

"Help me!" We hear her scream as we approach her. I was able to make her out on the ground fighting off a walker. Before any of us could reach her, a younger looking woman on a horse comes out of nowhere and takes out the walker with a bat.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" The woman approaches us on the horse.

"I'm Lori."

"Rick sent me. You've got to come now."

"What?"

"Their's been as accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've got to come now. Rick needs you. Just come." It was all very sudden to us. This mystery woman come out of nowhere and suddenly she knows what's going on. Lori drops her bag and steps up to the horse.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know this girl. You cant get on that horse." Daryl tried pleading with Lori, but of cores she didn't listen.

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" She looks at me.

"Yeah."

"Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox. The names Greene." With that, the woman takes off with Lori. All of us were left stunned and speechless as to what just happened. The walker that got knocked out, leaned back up groaning.

"Shut up." Daryl puts an arrow through the walkers head and continues to walk up to the highway.

"Aint that a bitch." I say walking up to Andrea who was still on the ground. I giver her my hand. She takes it as I help her up.

* * *

We finally reach the highway, Dale was waiting for us already by the rail gate. He saw that half of the group was missing.

"Where is everyone else?"

"Apparently, Carl has been shot." I see his expression drop.

"Shot? What do you mean shot?" I ignored him as I step over the rail and head to the bike. I leaned on a car, trying to catching my breath.

"I don't know. Dale. All we know is that this chick rode out of nowhere like Zoro on a horse and took Lori." Glenn explained. Dale looks at Daryl.

"And you let her?" Daryl narrows his eyes as he looks at Dale, stepping over the rail.

"Climb down out of my ass, old man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's." Daryl come over to me.

"Andrea, are you alright?" We all hear Dale call out to Andrea. She looks back at him, giving him a glare as she went in the RV slamming the door shut.

Now that we were back, my knees felt real shaky, I struggles to keep my feet together and catch my breath. Daryl saw the condition I was in.

"I feel like I'm gonna get heatstroke, if I cant keep this heat down."

"I figured after five years of roaming the woods with me. You be use to it by now."

"I thought I was, but I don't know what's wrong with me this time."

"Your weak." I stop and star at him. I couldn't believe what I heard. He's never offended me before. Why now? Why when I was in shitty conditions?

"We'll I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry my body is not as tough as yours." I snap at him and walk to the RV. I get in to cool off and see Andrea sitting down.

"You okay?" She asks me. I have a seat across from her.

"Yeah. Just need to cool off. This search really did a number on me. I feel drained. I don't know if its lack of food. Lack of water. Lack of sleep. Or just lack of everything." She smiles.

"I suppose I can say the same for me."

"Yeah except that you were attacked by a walker."

"Well, not the first time its happened." I now felt like I was getting somewhere new with Andrea. If she gives me a chance, I think we could work something out.

"Hay, look, I know I've haven't been the nicest to you before. We have had our differences. But I'd like to put that behind us. After all, we should be working together not against. Can you except my apology?" Andrea looks at me for a bit. She saw that I was being honest and that I really am sorry for my actions against her. After all she is Amy's sister, and I did promise her that I will make an effort in being on good terms with Andrea. She nodes with a small smile.

"Apology accepted." I hand out my hand to her, she takes it as we shake on it. Hopefully from now on, we'll be on the same page. Dale opens the door of the RV poking his head in.

"Girls, we're having a group meeting. Would you be so kind to join us." Andrea and I head outside for the group meeting, deciding on what we're gonna do. The sun had gone down so thankfully it was a lot cooler than what it was. As I step out, i see Daryl looking at me. I only look at him and turn away. I was still mad at him for offending me earlier.

"I think after what happened with Carl…we should leave to this, farm." Dale pointed out the option for leaving. I see Carol's expression drop.

"I wont do it. We cant just leave."

"Carol, the group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale added to his statement.

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea pointed out.

"Okay. We got to plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig up a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV." Daryl spoke up.

"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale protested. I wanted to say something but I didn't. If anything I'd rather leave to prove I aint weak as Daryl said I was. Carol looks at the two of them.

"Thank you. Thank you both."

"I'm in." Andrea added.

"Well if you're all staying then I'm-"

"Not you Glenn. Your going. Take Carol's Cherokee." Dale cut off Glenn before he could finish.

"Me? Why is it always me?" Glenn argued.

"You wont be going alone. Gwen will accompany you. You two have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on. But most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option." I node my head. This was a great opportunity to prove to Daryl that I wasn't weak.

"But Dale-"

"That cut has gone from bad to worse." Dale cuts Glenn off again. He looks at me. "Even tough you been cleaning it as good as you can, he's still managed to get a very serious blood infection. You need to get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke." Dale made it very clear to me and Glenn to go on this mission. Daryl walks back to his bike. He digs through the saddlebag and pulls out a plastic bag full of orange bottles. He comes back and sets them on the hood of a car.

"Keep your oily rags off my brothers motorcycle. Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my brothers stash." He digs through the bottles, checking the labels. "Crystal, X. Don't need that. Some kick-ass painkillers." He tosses a bottle to Glenn. "Oxyoline. Not the generic stuff nether. Its first class. Merle got the clap on occasions." He tosses another to Dale and takes the bag back to the bike. Dale takes the painkillers to T-Dog with Glenn assisting. Carol goes in the RV, leaving Andrea still by the hood of the car. Daryl comes up to us and looks at Andrea.

"Can you give us a minute." Andrea puts her hands up and walks away. I didn't want to make eye contact so I remained silent and looked out into the woods.

"So, what your mad at me? Why you ignoring me?" I knew it ate at him whenever I got mad or ignored him, so I remind quiet.

"Your not even gonna speak to me?" Nothing "Is this about what I said earlier?"

"When? Back at the church or when we got back?" He looks at me confused.

"What did I say when we got back?"

"Oh you don't remember? That whole I'm weak part."

"Gwen you misunderstood me. I didn't mean weak as in you cant take a hit. But weak as in your body is drained of energy weak."

"Sure that's what you mean."

"Its true. Look I don't have to explain myself to you anymore than I should." He snaps.

"Fine, don't. Its not like you ever have anyway." I snap back. We both star at each other for a moment.

"Um, Gwen. I think you Glenn and T-Dog should get going before it gets dark." Dale quietly interrupted.

"Thank you, Dale." I say without taking my eyes off Daryl. I then walk away to the bike to gather some off my stuff and my machete.

* * *

Glenn and I load up some stuff in Carol's car and help T-Dog inside, gathering all his belongings. Before Glenn and I were ready to go, we talked to Dale.

"Okay, so you remember where this places is?" Dale asks me. I node my head.

"Yeah. Once we find out anything on what's going on. One of us will come back to lead the rest of you guys back their." Glenn confirmed our plan. Dale nodes and looks at us.

"Good luck you two. Stay safe, keep each others back and please, get T-Dog the medical treatment he needs." Dale begged.

"Will do." I say. Glenn and I head back to the Cherokee. Glenn gets in the passengers side as I head to the drivers. I look back towards the bike and see Daryl looking at me. We look at each other for a bit, then I get in the car and drive away.


	3. The Farm

**Desert Eagle**

**So for this chapter i decided to change the POV to a narrator instead of Gwen's. This will be from now on. The slanted words would be the characters ****thoughts. Theirs non on this chapter, but their will be in the upcoming ones. Hope you enjoy.**

_Setting- Save The Last Ones_

Chapter 3 The Farm

That night in the RV. Daryl lay on the floor, unable to sleep. For one, Carol sobbing in the room. And two for his argument he had with Gwen earlier in that day. He leans up seeing Carol crying her eyes out for her daughter. Unable to take her suffering any longer, he gets up and grabs his crossbow.

"I need my clip now." Daryl looks at Andrea, who was loading up the clip of his gun, unable to sleep herself. She finishes and hands it to him. Daryl inserts the clip and loads his gun.

"I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girl." He looks back at Carol, seeing she herd what he said, drying her eyes. He gives her a node and heads out. A few steps out the RV, Andrea comes out, following him.

"I'm coming too." Daryl nods in approval and looks up at Dale.

"I'm going for a walk, shine some light in the forest. If's she's out there, give her something to look at."

"Do you really think that's a good idea right now?" Dale tries to argue but is cut off by Andrea.

"Dale." She walks on, not wanting any complications with him. Daryl remains silent and follows Andrea.

The two of them walked on for a bit on the road until, Daryl stepped over the rail heading into the woods. Not wanting the search to be so quiet and awkward. Daryl breaks the silence.

"So why did you decide to come with me?"

"Well since Gwen is usually the one to go with you on these things. I figured I'd fill in for her, since she aint hear."

"Hmm."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." Andrea takes a deep breath, hoping what she's about to say wont upset him.

"I've heard Gwen's opinion about your guys relationship, a few different times. But, I never heard your side of it."

"Why is everyone so interested about mine and Gwen's relationship all the sudden?"

"Well you guys argue worse than a husband and wife would. I mean how do you guys keep it together without killing each other? And Gwen seems like an alright person to me. How does she put up with you and how you act towards her sometimes."

"You know I ask myself that sometimes. She must see something in me that nobody else does. I don't know why. I'm such as ass that it aint even fair to her. I sure ass hell wouldn't put up with me for five years."

"Has it ever occurred to you that she does in fact care about you?"

"She shouldn't. She deserve better than me."

"Maybe she doesn't want better. She understands you in a way nobody does. Yet she manages to put up with your bullshit. Now I'm not saying I'm an expert at this but maybe she just wants something in return from you." Daryl remained silent, already saying to much, he didn't want to talk about his relationship anymore.

"Have you even told her, you love her?"

"Look can we stop talking about this. Were here to look for Sophia not talk about feelings. My relationship is nobody's business but mine and Gwen's." Daryl spat walking on. Andrea shakes her head and follows.

* * *

Back with Gwen, Glenn and T-Dog. They arrive at the farm, stopping the car almost at the front door. The three of them get out and stand in front of the car, staring at the house.

"So do we ring the bell? I mean it looks like people live here." Glenn looked a bit intimidated and unsure about the whole thing.

"We're past this kind of stuff, aren't we? Having to be considerate." T-Dog spoke from behind Gwen and Glenn. Non of them said a word walking up to the porch and up the few steps to the door. The three of them stop, hearing a voice beside them.

"Did you close the gate up the road when you drove in?" The same woman they had met earlier got up from a rocking chair near the door.

"Uh hi." Glenn froze, seeing the pretty woman, who seemed close to his age.

"Yes, we closed it." Gwen answered the young woman's question. She leans into the light, showing herself.

"Nice to see you again." Gwen kindly greets her. The woman looks at Glenn. He stiffens up, smiling at her.

"We met before briefly." His voice shook from the nerves, being near the woman.

"Look, we came to help and to reconnect with our people. There anything we can do?" Gwen explained their main reason to why they're their. The woman looks at T-Dog's wound. Her eyes begin to widen, fearing the worst.

"Its not a bite. I cut myself pretty bad though." T-Dog struggled to keep himself together.

"We'll have it looked at.. I'll tell them you're here." Gwen pulls out the painkillers from her duffle bag and hands them to the young woman.

"We have some painkillers and antibiotics. I did as best I can to keep it clean, but its still getting infected."

"I already gave him some. If Carl needs any." Glenn added. The woman opens the screen door and leads them inside.

"Come on inside. I'll make you something to eat." The four of them enter the farm house. Gwen looks up towards the stairway hearing voices.

"How is Carl doing? Is he okay?"

"He's stable for now, but he needs to go under surgery if he's got a good chance at surviving. Your friend Shane and one of ours' went out to get the proper equipment for the surgery. They been gone a while now. If they don't make it back soon, my father will have to go on with the surgery."

"Is that a bad thing?" Glenn questioned.

"If not done with the proper tools their's a high risk Carl may not survive." The woman explains.

"Can we see him?" Gwen kindly asks.

"Of cores. Rick and Lori are up their with him." The woman leads them up to the room were Carl and his parents are. The whole room was quiet, with Carl on the bed, pale from the massive blood loss. So was Rick.

"Hey." Glenn quietly makes their presents known. Rick looks over at his friends for a few seconds.

"Hey." He greets them, looking back at his son.

"Um, we're here okay?" Glenn adds not knowing what else to say.

"Thank you." Lori looks over at them with swollen red eyes from the massive grieving over her son's condition.

"What ever you need." Gwen informs them as they left the room. Rick and Lori remain silent.

* * *

In the woods, Daryl and Andrea continue their search for Sophia. After a while of silence, Andrea tries to make conversation with Daryl again.

"You really think we're gonna find Sophia?" Daryl looks over, and shines the light in her face, looking at her expression.

"You got that look on your face, same as everyone else."

"Even Gwen?"

"Especially her, aside from Carol. What the hell is wrong with you people? We just started looking."

"Well do you?" Andrea argued back wanting her answer.

"It aint the mountains of Tibet. Its Georgia. She could be held up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time."

"She's only 12."

"Hell I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries wiping my ass with poison oak."

"They found you?"

"My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doing another stint in Juvie. Dint even know I was gone. I made my way back though. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful." Daryl explained himself. Not being able to hold it in any longer. Andrea bursts out laughing.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that's a terrible story." Daryl managed to laugh with her. The first he's ever laughed in a long time. They laughed together for a bit.

"Only difference is Sophia's got people looking for her. I call that an advantage." He added.

"Gwen wasn't with you at the time?" He scoffs in amusement.

"I didn't meet her till years later." Andrea waited for him to explain more. He looks back at her.

"Are we really gonna go back to that again?"

"I just wanna know how you two meet and got together." Daryl remains silent for a bit.

"We meet at a carnival or amusement parks. One of those things. Merle and I went their, he was doing his drug thing so I went my separate way. She was working as a dancer at night. During the day she worked at the shooting range. That's kinda what attracted me to her in the first place. The more Merle and I went their. The more I went to see her show. Witch was strange. I was never attracted to any girl like I was to her.-

_~~Flash Back~~_

It went on like that for a while, Merle did his drug business. I went off to see the woman dance. It almost felt like a routine. The same thing every night. It was rare when we went in the day. Unfortunately one time we did for some reason. Merle took off somewhere leaving me alone. I was walking around, until I saw her. She had left the gun range. Something told me to follow her. I didn't know what it was. She turned into some tents as I followed. I froze as she was standing their staring at me, pissed off with her hands on her hips.

"Why the hell are you following me?" I didn't know what to say. Truth was I didn't know why I was following her. If Merle knew I was beginning to fall for some girl, he'd give me so much shit and would never let me live it down.

"Um, I huh."

"You stalking me?"

"No."

"I've seen you every night at my show. You cant tell me that aint stalking." I remained silent.

"Unless you have something to say. Quit following me and leave me the hell alone." She turned and was walking away. For one I was not a pushover. And two I was not gonna let a girl tell me off.

"Hold on. I was just interested, cause I saw your shooting." She stopped and looked at me. "I saw that you're a pretty good aim."

"What's your point?"

"I wanna see how good you are. Up close." A smirk grows on her face.

"I work at a gun range show. What does that tell you?"

"I'm a hunter. What does that tell you?" Her smirk grows into a cocky smile.

"Your on."

_~~Back~~_

"Sounds like you guys didn't get off on the right foot." Andrea looked at Daryl unconvinced.

"We got to know each other more after the shoot off. Eventually I told Merle about her. I got so much shit from him for a long time. For two years he kept it up." Andrea then realizes something.

"Two years. You guys got together the following year then, is that right?"

"Yeah."

"What happened with Merle then?"

"The same shit twice as much. It wasn't till the world went to shit, that he actually stopped."

"During the five years you guys dated-"

"Look I already told you enough. You already know more than you should."

"Hay my lips are sealed."

* * *

At the farm, T-Dog was now being properly cared for. Gwen waited outside, taking watch from the porch. The night was quiet. The only noises that were herd was from the crickets chirping. Not long into her watch, Glenn comes outside and sits on the rocking chair that Maggie was sitting in when they had arrived.

"Tomorrow morning, I think you should head out and get the others, bring em here. This place could give us a whole new area to look for Sophia. Plus this place seem quiet enough. It certainly beats staying stranded out in the highway." Gwen explained to Glenn but he said nothing in return. She looks over at him.

"You okay?" Glenn looks over at her, only nodding.

"I was just praying. Trying to."

"I didn't know you were religious. You pray a lot?"

"Actually this was my first try."

"Ever?" He nodes again.

"What were you praying for?"

"Our friends, back at the highway. Carl, T-Dog, Sophia. Looks like they could all use a little help right now." He pauses "You think…you think God exists?"

"I don't know. Never was much of a believer. Lately with whats happened has made me doubt it even more."

"Thanks. This is really helping."

"Sorry." Glenn gets up from the chair.

"Your gonna keep watch?"

"Yeah. I'll still keep watch." He grabs his cup and heads inside.

"I'm gonna go see if I could get a refill."

About an hour after Glenn had gone inside, a blue truck approaches the house. Not knowing who it is, Gwen runs inside.

"Maggie. Someone in a blue tuck just showed up." Maggie ran up stairs to get her father as everyone else heads outside. The driver door swings open as Shane hops out, limping on one leg. Rick, Lori, Hershel, and Glenn approach him.

"Carl?" He asks, out of breath, handing Glenn and Hershel two bags.

"Theirs still a chance." Rick answers. The old man looks back in the truck.

"Otis?"

"No." Shane shakes his head, avoiding eye contact with Hershel. The elder man and his daughter are stunned by the hurtful news.

"We say nothing to Patricia. Not till after. I need her." He heads inside to begin the surgery on Carl. Maggie goes inside as Glenn and Gwen follow her into the kitchen. She has a seat as she begins to cry. Gwen gets her a tissue and stands by the fridge.

"Its okay. Just say what's on your mind." Maggie begins to dry her tears as she continues to sob.

"I've known Otis since I was a kid. He's run this farm since before my mother died." Glenn walks to the other side of the fridge, opposite of Gwen.

"Who else? Who'd you lose?"

"Is this really the best time to ask that?" Gwen whispered leaning over to Glenn.

"Yes." He looks back at Maggie "You told me I had to make it okay somehow. That's what you've been trying to do, right? Witch ones?" Maggie gets up and walks to the fridge, full of pictures. She begins to point at individual people.

"Stepmother. Stepbrother." She takes a deep breath as she begins to point more out, but begins to break down again. Gwen gives her a hug as Maggie cries on her shoulder, she looks at Glenn.

"Give us a minute." He nodes and leaves the kitchen. Gwen and Maggie have a seat at the table again.

"Its okay to let it all out. I know what its like to lose someone close to you. Thiers no way you can ever be prepared for something like that."

"It's the pain after losing them that hurts."

"You can never get over the pain, you just…make room for it." Maggie laughs in a sobbing way.

"This is crazy, I'm taking advice from someone I hardly know."

"I tend to have that effect on people." Maggie dries her tears.

"How long do you and your people plan to stay?"

"Well, after Carl gets better. We were hoping we would stay for a while. Help you guys keep your farm safe."

"That's kind of you. I'll talk to my father about it."

* * *

About an hour later, Glenn comes back in the kitchen. He had a sign of relief on his face.

"The surgery is finished." Maggie and Gwen look at each other as they get up and follow Glenn outside. Hershel was out on the porch looking at Rick and Lori as they desperately waited for the news of their child.

"He seems to have stabilized." A wave of relief washes over everyone. Rick goes up to Hershel and gives him a hug.

"I don't have words." Lori cried.

"I don't ether. Whish I did. How do I tell Patricia about Otis?" The farmer looked at Rick and Shane. Nobody said anything. Rick looks back at his wife.

"You go to Carl. I'll go with Hershel." Rick and the elder farmer go inside to the kitchen, were Patricia was. Shane and Lori head inside as well. Gwen looks at Maggie and Glenn.

"I'll keep watch."

"I'll keep you company." T-Dog volunteered.

"No." Maggie argued "Theirs a spare room you guys can take. Ya'll need your rest."

"Thank you, we really appreciate it." Glenn thanked her. The three of them head inside to the spare room.


	4. Do you still think i'm weak?

**Desert Eagle**

**So a lot of interesting things happen in this chapter. The POV's are half narrator and half of Gwen's. I wont spoil anything but just a heads up that the town in this chapter is NOT the same one that Glenn and Maggie go to for the pharmacy run. _Enjoy._**

_Setting- Cherokee Rose_

Chapter 4 Do you Still Think I'm Weak?

The next morning. Everyone loads up rocks on a wheel barrel, to prepare for Otis's ceremony. They all stop when they hear the faint sound of a motorcycle. Everyone look out in the distance and see the rest of the group arriving. T-Dog runs inside to get Rick and Lori.

Once the rest of the group arrives in the property, everyone regroups in the front of the house.

"How is he?" Dale breaks the silence, being the first to approach Rick.

"He'll pull though, thanks to Hershel and his people." Lori answers with a shaken voice.

"And Shane, we'd have lost Carl if not for him." Rick adds. Dale gives Rick a hug. Everyone greets each other. Carol, hugging Lori. T-Dog hugging Andrea. Except Daryl and Gwen, they stared at each other with most the group in between them.

"How'd It happen?" Dale asked still concerned.

"Hunting accident. That's all…just a stupid hunting accident." Rick just about broke down again.

"In a few moments, were going to have a gathering for a good man we lost. Otis. Your people are more than welcome to join us." The farmer announced, heading back in his house.

* * *

The group settled in near the house under a few trees. While some of the group members were already beginning to settle in under the trees, as well as Daryl. He spots Gwen over by a gate, looking out into the fields. He looks around before walking over to her.

"Hay." He greets her with a kind tone.

"It's a nice place out here. Quiet. Peaceful. Almost makes you forget what the world is like out their."

"Yeah for all we know. Their could be walkers roman those woods. And we still haven't found the girl." Gwen remains silent, looking out into the field. Daryl bits his lower lip, not knowing what else to say. He hated it when, he and Gwen got into arguments. Most of the time cause he didn't know how to react to them.

"Look Gwen what ever it was I said that upset you, I'm…I didn't mean it okay. You know I would never call you weak in a bad way." Gwen looks down, then up at him. They look at each other for a bit.

"I'm sorry." He adds. Gwen breaks a small smile. She leans in and gives him a hug, accepting his apology. After a few moments she pulls away grabbing his hand.

"Come on, everyone is heading over to Otis ceremony across the other filed."

Gwen and Daryl arrive just in time before Hershel began his speech.

"Blessed be God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to Him for the gift of our brother Otis, for his span of years, for his abundance of Character; Otis, Who gave his life to save a Child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived, in grace." He pauses and looks at Shane "Shane, will you speak for Otis?" Shane stiffens up and begins to avoid any eye contact with Hershel and his family.

"I'm not good at it. I'm Sorry."

"You were the last one with him." Patricia looked at him, trying to keep herself together "You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning." Shane looks at her.

"Meaning?" He repeated. He waited for a while wanting to speak, until he did. "We were down to pistols by then. I was limping. It was bad. Ankle all swollen up. "We've got to save the boy." See, that's what he said. He gave me his backpack. He shoved me ahead. "Run," he said. He said "I'll take the rear. I'll cover you." And when I looked back…." Shane stops and looks over at Patricia who was crying again. He begins to limp over to the pile of rocks and grabs one from the barrel. "If not for Otis, I'd have never made it out alive. And that goes for Carl, too. It was Otis. He saved us both." Shane looks back at Patricia "If any death ever had meaning, it was his." Patricia nodes, breaking a smile. Shane turns back and places the rock on the pile, for Otis.

* * *

Later that day some of the group members gathered around the Jeep, to come up with a new plan on where to start looking for Sophia. Gwen looks around the property.

"Where do we even start looking around hear?"

"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel questions everyone gathered around the car.

"This'll be day three." Shane answers. Maggie joins them, laying out a map on the hood of the car.

"County survey map. Shows terrain and elevations." Rick looks at the map.

"This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."

"Not you. Not today. You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't he hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out." The farmer interrupted. He looks at Shane who was leaning on the hood of the car. "And your ankle…push it now, you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."

"Guess its just me then. I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there." Daryl pointed at the map, swinging his crossbow over his shoulder. Shane lifts himself up with his arms.

"I can still be useful. I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wondered back." Rick nodes his head once looking at the map.

"All right, tomorrow then. We'll start doing this right."

"That means we cant have our people out there with just knives." Shane looks at Gwen and her machete "No offence."

"Non taken."

"They need the gun training we've been promising them." He continued looking at Rick.

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp." The farmer intervened. Shane looks down shaking his head. He puts his hands on his hips.

"All due respect, you get a crowed of those things wondering in here…"

"Look, we're guests here. This is your property and we will respect that." Rick interrupts Shane looking at Hershel and everyone around. He grabs his gun and set it on the hood. Shane shakes his head in disagreement but drops his gun on the hood anyway. Rick looks at Gwen, waiting on her to give up her gun as well. She looks at him and sighs, putting her gun on the hood.

"First things first: Set up camp, find Sophia."

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how we handle that." Shane looked Rick, waiting for an answer. He hesitated for a bit not wanting to answer it.

"You do what has to be done." Gwen looks at Rick not believing what he just said.

"And Carol? What do you suppose we tell her?"

"The truth." Andrea finally spoke, standing next to Gwen. Shane grabs all three guns.

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no one's carrying tell we're at a practice range off site." Shane looks at Hershel "I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience." Hershel doesn't answer.

"Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." Rick kindly explained to Hershel. He looks at him for a moment. Not answering their request, he only nodes in not total agreement. "Thank you." Shane and Daryl leave the car. Maggie looks at Rick.

"That stuff you brought, got more antibiotics, bandages, anything like that?" Not knowing the exact answer. Rick looks at Gwen and Andrea.

"Just what you've seen." Gwen answers as she walks away with Andrea.

* * *

Later on that day, around noon. Daryl examines the map one more time. Gwen walks up to him, wrapping an arm around him. He takes his eyes off the map and looks at her.

"I got the rout we'll be taking." He swings his crossbow over his shoulder. "Ready when you are." Gwen lets him go, taking a step back.

"I'm not going." Daryl narrows his eyes. He wasn't gonna ask why, but Gwen knew she had to give him an answer. "I need to help, them set up camp. Plus I'm feeling a little off today."

"You been feeling off since we were all out their in the woods."

"I don't know what's wrong, it could be something I ate. It could have been one of your squirrels, that's been turning my stomach." Daryl didn't say a word, he looks around unconvinced of what Gwen just said.

"The camp looks pretty set up to me already."

"Well, to help around if need be."

"Hmm. Well I should get going, if I have any chance finding her." Gwen nodes her head.

"You gonna be okay out their on your own?"

"Don't worry, I'll be back before dark." Daryl turns around and begins to head off into the woods.

"Be safe." Gwen call out one last time. As Daryl disappeared in the woods. Gwen looks around the camp. Off in the distance in a filed she saw everyone gathered and distracted around a water well. She knew Carol was inside the RV cleaning it. Nobody was around camp or around at the moment. So she goes to their tent and grabs her machete, her hand then absently looks for her berretta in her gun holster. She remembers that Shane had taken all the guns, including hers.

"Fuck. _Well, looks like ima have to go with just my trusty machete._" Gwen grabs her duffle bag and looks around one more time before taking off in a different direction on her own.

* * *

After about two and a half hours, going through the woods. Gwen comes across a town. She wasn't sure if it was the same one, she overheard Maggie talking to Glenn about. Ether way, she kept on walking. With only one to two walkers around as she approached the town. Gwen takes em out with one swing of her machete.

Gwen's POV:

I kept walking, going deeper inside the town. It looked pretty empty. No walkers around, thank god. But the sun was insanely hot. Before I could keep walking, I had to stop to vomit a bit. It wasn't much but its still a reason why I was here on my own. This wasn't any stomach flu or just upset. This felt like something else. I walked a little more until I came across a small little pharmacy. I hope, what I was looking for was inside.

Their was nothing much left inside, it seemed a lot of people took what they could, when everything went down. All that was left was just a bunch or feminine products. Most of the medicine and bandages were gone. No surprise. Thankfully what I was looking for was their. I grab one and put it in my bag. I look around to grab a few more antibiotics that were laying around then head out. It was cooler inside the building that outside even tough the air conditioner wasn't working. I look in my bag and see that I didn't bring any water with me. Not even a container of water. Then again I wasn't expecting it to be this far from the farm and this hot. I don't see how Daryl could go on like this for days.

Before I head back I decided to look for a liquor store or something that may have some water bottles. Going in deeper into the town and thinking the stupidest thing that their wouldn't be anymore walkers around. I walk around a street at fast past and freeze at the sight of a dozen walkers. Without trying to make a sound, I begin to walk backwards, hoping they would not see me. Biggest fucking mistake ever. My foot steps on a twig breaking it, getting all the walkers attention. My heart stopped. I thought this was only a thing that happened in movies? Their was no way I would be able to kill all of them with just a blade and me alone. The walkers begin to snarl and speed stumble my way. I had no choice but to forget the water and take off.

I sprinted and sprinted for as long as my body could go. As much as I was running the walkers seemed to keep coming. The more I ran, the more I lost most of the walkers. But some kept coming out of nowhere. With no water, the heat and running continuously. My body wanted to give up and collapse. I had to fight it and keep running. Not back to the farm, but away. I didn't want to lead the walkers straight to the farm and have that end in disaster.

I felt like I was running for a long time. Some straggler walkers were around that I was able to take out. I stopped when I didn't see any more walkers around. My lungs felt like they were about to explode, trying to catch enough air. I began to get lightheaded, seeing black spots everywhere I looked. I couldn't focus on anything now. I held on to a tree for leverage, but my legs began to shake, trying to collapse from under me. I hear a walker nearby. It sounded like it was coming from all sides, but I didn't see anything. In the middle of nowhere in the forest, about to pass out and walkers around. I had a bad feeling that this was gonna be it for me. Everything then turned black.

Normal POV:

As Gwen passes out from dehydration, a few walkers close in on her. Luckily Daryl was on his way back when he comes across the walkers. He sees that they were about to start devouring something. He saw the it looked like a person. Fearing that it might be Sophia, he kills the four walkers. Daryl than sees who they were about to eat. He is stunned for a bit seeing that it was Gwen that was about to die. He kneels down and begins to check her body for bites or scratches. Daryl puts his ear to her mouth and hears her faint breathing. He cradles Gwen in his arms and gently shakes and slaps her face.

"Gwen get up." No response from her. He continues to shake her. "Wake up damn it!" Daryl looks around and sees her duffle bag a few feet away from her. Gwen begins to breath heavily form the lack of water. Daryl looks down and sees her dried up lips, answering that she had passed out form dehydration. He picks her up and grabs her bag. Slowly but surely, he makes his way back to the farm.

* * *

When Daryl arrived with Gwen in hand, the group rushes over to them.

"What happened?" Maggie approached them, as well as other members of the group.

"She passed out of dehydration. Why they hell wasn't anybody with her?" Daryl snaps as he kept walking up to the house. Everyone looked a bit confused.

"We thought she was with you. One moment she was in camp, the next she was nowhere to be seen. We figured she went with you." Andrea explained.

"We need to get her some fluids in her system and cooler place. Lets get her in the house." Maggie led Daryl in the house, up the stairs and in a different spare room, setting her on the bed. Hershel comes in with and begins treating her.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I was on my back, when I saw a few walkers surrounding something. It looked like a person. I figured it was the little girl, so I took out the walkers and saw that it was Gwen passed out, then I brought her here."

"How long had she been dehydrated in the forest?"

"Hell if I know. I didn't even know she was out their alone. She told me she was gonna stay cause she didn't feel well."

"From the looks of it. I say you found her just in time."

About twenty minutes later. Hershel finished up treating Gwen. He looks at his oldest daughter.

"Maggie, go and get that young man. Tell him he can come see her now." The young woman nodes heading outside. She sees Daryl coming out the RV as she goes up to him.

"Daryl?" The hunter stops and looks at her.

"You can go see your…friend now. She'll be okay." Daryl nodes once and heads up to the house.

He enters Gwen's room and takes a seat next to her. He sat their for a while, looking at her, making sure she was alright.

* * *

Late afternoon came and Daryl had not moved from his spot. Gwen finally moves and opens her eyes. She looks around the room until her eyes met up with Daryl's. Gwen looks away.

"Your mad aren't you?"

"Why were you out their by yourself?" He pauses "I thought you said you were to sick to go out."

"I was, but I had to find something to get rid of this stomachache. Otherwise I'd be useless to everyone around here." They exchange looks. "I'm sorry, I put that pressure on you."

"Don't be. You went out on your own to find yourself a cure, just to help find this girl. You don't owe me an apology." He grabs her duffle bag and sets it on the bed. "I don't know what it was that you were looking for, but here's your bag." Gwen sits up and grabs it. "It was a few feet away when I found you unconscious." Daryl gets up and begins to head to the door.

"Where are you going?" Daryl stops and looks at her.

"Out, see if I'm needed."

"Please stay." Daryl looks at her, seeing the conditions she's in. "You need a break too." She continues. He nodes once and walks back, taking a seat on the chair next to the bed. Gwen lays back down on her side, facing him. She reaches her arm out to grab his hand. He extends his connecting hands with hers.

That night, Daryl didn't move, falling asleep on the chair but not letting go of Gwen's hand. She wakes up in the same position she had fallen asleep in, looking up at Daryl. Gwen sees he too was sleeping, hearing his faint snoring, slouching on the chair and resting his feet on the bed. She slowly slides her hand from under Daryl's and grabs her bag as she get up and heads to the bathroom.

Inside, Gwen digs through her bag to find the item she got in town.

Gwen's POV:

It's was the moment of truth. This damn thing will explain as to why I've been feeling week and nauseous. I waited for a few minutes for the stupid thing to analyze. When I checked it again, their it was. A little pink plus sign. I feel my heart sink.

"No. It cant be. Merle you asshole." I knew it had to be him. It sure as hell couldn't of been Daryl. Or has it been that long since the CDC? No, It would be to soon. It has to be Merle, its been long enough since he raped me in the woods that time. Now how could I possibly explain this to Daryl. I only see two option. One I can keep this abomination of Merle's and lie to Daryl that its his and have him get mad and possibly leave me. Or I can get rid of it before anything starts to show and not say a word to Daryl about anything. The thing is that I wanted a baby for so long that even if it wasn't Daryl's. It still could be our child, but I don't know if Daryl is even ready for a kid, and in this world? Who knows how long the baby would last before its torn apart by walkers.

I began to cry all this was overwhelming. Should I get rid of this before it even begins to grow or not. This is not gonna be an easy choice.


	5. Wounded And Loved

**Desert Eagle**

**In this chapter you get to see Daryl finally express himself to Gwen...sober. Hope you enjoy.**

_Setting- Chupacabra_

Chapter 5 Wounded And Loved

By morning Gwen was up and moving, finally being hydrated once again. Not seeing Daryl in the room, she head out, back to the camp sight. Carol was one of the first to greet her, hanging up clothes.

"Morning."

"Good morning."

"I heard what happened." Gwen chuckles "Feeling alright?" Carol continued.

"I am, I guess it be smarter to take a water bottle with me next time."

"Or just have someone with you."

"That too." Gwen walks a few feet away towards Andrea and T-Dog. Shortly Rick comes out of his tent.

"Morning guys. Lets get going. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

After breakfast some of the group members gather around Carol's jeep, looking at the map.

"All right, everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further east then we've bee so far." Rick explains. A young man around his teens from Hershel's people named Jimmy approaches the group.

"I'd like to help. I know the area pretty well and stuff." Everyone looks at him.

"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick questioned the boy.

"Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you."

"All right then. Thanks." Rick confirmed. Gwen looked at the boy unsatisfying.

"You know this aint gonna be a walk in the park, kid." Jimmy only looks at her and nodes.

"I know."

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse." Shane spoke out from inside the jeep, with the door open, next to Andrea.

"Anybody including her, right?" Gwen argued back, standing next to Daryl.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high." Daryl leveled his hand about half his height.

"It's a good lead." Andrea added, looking down at Shane. Rick nodes looking at the map.

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail their again."

"No maybe about it. I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a birds-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, we'll find her." Daryl pointed out, explaining to Rick. T-Dog looks at him in a joking matter.

"Good idea. Maybe you'll see your Chupacabra up there too." Rick looks at them confused.

"Chupacabra?" He repeated

"You never heard the story?" Dale came in, setting down a shotgun on the hood.

"Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing remind him of a time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra." Gwen explained with a smile on her face, trying not to laugh. Jimmy indeed laughs at the story, not believing a word. Daryl narrows his eyes.

"What are you braying at, jackass?" he spat not liking that he was being made fun of.

"So you believe in a blood-sucking dog?"

"Do you believe in dead people walking around?" He countered. Jimmy remains silent and reaches for the shotgun, Dale had put on the hood. Rick grabs the gun and pushed Jimmy's hands away.

"Hey, hey. Ever fired one before?"

"Well, if I'm going out, I want one." The boy argued. Daryl snorts, swinging his crossbow over his shoulder.

"Yeah, and people in hell want Slurpees."

"Look kid, this aint a game okay." Gwen lectured, looking at the boy.

"Well do you know how to fire one?" She smirks at him.

"I use to work at a gun range show. What does that tell you?" Jimmy remained silent. Gwen then walks away following Daryl. She meet him by their tent. Gwen goes to grab her machete when Daryl puts his hand in the way.

"I think you should sit this search out."

"Why? I wanna help you look for Sophia. In a way its my fault she got lost. The least I could do is help find her." Gwen argued, Daryl shakes his head.

"You just got on your feet this morning, your not ready yet. I don't want you passing out on me again."

"Baby come on." Daryl only shakes his head. She stares at him, still wanting to go.

"Look just stay, okay." He leaves without any further discussion. Gwen watches him head to the stables to get a horse. She looks over to the house hearing the screen door shut. It was Glenn and Maggie talking. Glenn leans one of his hands on the wall behind Maggie, moments later she walks away. A smile grows on Gwen knowing what's going on between them. She makes her way up to the porch and joins Glenn. He sees the big smile on her.

"What?"

"I saw that. You like her don't ya?" Glenn begins to blush.

"I huh…yeah…um yeah, yeah I do." He stutters.

"Doesn't she like you?"

"I'm…I'm not sure. It seems like she does, but then it seems like she doesn't."

"Try not to rush into things. Give her some time. If you don't push her into something she's not interested in, she'll eventually come around. If she likes you."

"She told me she wasn't even sure if she liked me."

"Did she say it with a smile or a frown?"

"Little bit of both." Gwen raises an eyebrow and smiles.

"Just give her time." She begins to walk away.

"How do you do it?" He calls out, she turns around. "You and Daryl. How do you do it?"

"Our relationship is to complicated to explain, Glenn." He looked at her, still wanting an answer. "Space. You want her to fall for you. Give her space. And don't be so pushy." Glenn smiles, satisfied with the answer she gave him. Gwen begins to walk back, she stops and turns back looking at Glenn.

"Glenn, How long has it been since we left the CDC?" Glenn narrows his eyes not really sure why she was asking so.

"A couple weeks. Why?" Gwen looks down, trying to figure out something, remembering that night with Daryl. She looks back up at Glenn.

"No reason." She turns and walks away going back to her tent.

* * *

It was now mid-day in the woods. After a hard landing down a rocky hill, being knocked off by the horse. Having an arrow penetrate his side. Attempting to clime up a steep hill only to fall all the way down again. Daryl lay at the bottom of creek bed, zooming in and out of consciousness. Exhausted and dehydrated, he begins to hallucinate.

"Why don't you pull that arrow out dummy? You could bind your wound better." An all to familiar voice rings in Daryl's head. He opens his eyes and smirks at the sight of him.

"Merle." His older brother stares back at him and chuckles, looking at the conditions he's in.

"What's going on here? You taking a siesta or something?"

"A shitty day, bro."

"Like me to get you a pillow? Maybe rub your feet?" he teased.

"Fuck you."

"Huh-uh. You're the one fucked from the looks of it. All them years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at you. Lying in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here little brother. And for what? Hmm? Where's your little precious Gwen?"

"A girl. They lost a little girl."

"Oh, so you got a thing for little girls now? Is that why you kept little Gwen around for so long?"

"Shut up."

"Cause I noticed you aint out looking for old Merle no more."

"Tried like hell to find you, bro."

"Like hell you did. You split, man. Lit out first chance you got."

"You lid out. All you had to do was wait. We went back for you. Rick, Gwen and I, we did right by you."

"This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand? This him we're talking about here? You his bitch now?"

"I aint nobody's bitch."

"You're a joke is what you are, playing errand boy to a bunch of pansy-asses, niggers and democrats." He chuckles once more "You're nothing but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's all you are. They're laughing at you behind your back. Not even little Gwen likes you. You know that don't you? I got news for you, son. She's hiding something from you. One of these she's, gonna scrape you off her heels like you was dogshit." Daryl goes in and out of consciousness.

"Hey." Merle nudges him, getting him to wake up. "They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours, you'd go back there, kick that bitch to the curve and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me." He pauses and grabs Daryl's face "Now you listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about you except for me little brother. Not even little Gwen. Aint nobody ever will. Now come on, get up on your feet before I have to kick your teeth in." Merle gets up and begins to kick Daryl.

"Lets go. On your feet." Daryl manages to regain full conscious as he kept getting moved around. He looks down and sees a walker trying to eat through his shoe. Daryl's instincts kick in as he begins to fight the walker off, punching and kicking it. After getting the walker off him, Daryl grabs a thick branch and smashes the walkers head in. Another walker approaches him as pulls the arrow out of his side and loading it in his crossbow. Daryl shoots the walker in the head right as it was about to attach him. Back on the ground with both walkers dead, Daryl catches his breath before passing out once again.

Back at camp Gwen was cleaning her machete by hers and Daryl's tent. It was still stained by walker blood from yesterday.

"Gwen." She turns around and sees Rick approach her.

"Rick."

"Is Daryl back yet?"

"Not that I know of. Why?"

"Did he take a horse?"

"I think so. This morning before he left, I saw him heading to the stables."

"I just talked to Hershel. He said one of his horses is missing." Gwen shrugs her shoulders, not knowing what to say.

"When he gets back, tell him to ask next time he plans on taking a horse." She chuckles. Rick narrows his eyes, wondering why.

"Rick, Daryl aint the kind of guy to ask for stuff. You should know that by now. Hell he doesn't even ask me for shit."

"Well he should start learning. We cant just be taking things that isn't ours. This isn't our land." Gwen doesn't answer. Rick puts his hands on his hips.

"Okay I'll tell him when he gets back." She puts her hands up in a humorous matter. Rick cracks a smile.

"Thank you." He leaves.

* * *

Later that day, late afternoon, still by her tent. Gwen practices moves and techniques with her machete. Coming up with different ways to kill walkers in various situation. T-Dog, stands nearby observing her as she practices. She finally notices him and stops.

"Oh hey, T-Dog. I didn't know I was being watched." He approaches her with a smile.

"You got some pretty good moves their girl."

"Thanks." Gwen sets down her machete and wipes the sweat off her face.

"Where did you learn to do all that?"

"Self taught."

"Damn girl you look like ninja doing all that crazy stuff." She smiles. T-Dog looks around "Your boy aint back yet?"

"No. Not yet. He should be coming back sometime soon tough." He nodes.

"So you feeling better now? After what happened to you yesterday?"

"Yeah I'm fine now." Their was silence between them. "So did you and Andrea have any luck on your search today?"

"Nah, We didn't find anything. Then again we aint expert tracers like your boy." He chuckles.

"Why do you call him that?"

"I guess I'm just use to calling him that. It be odd to call him by his real name."

"Hmm." Gwen smiles at him.

"Hum. Lori and Carol are in the kitchen making food. They wanna thank Hershel and their people for helping us so far. Like you." Gwen looks at the house.

"In the house?"

"Yeah." She narrows her eyes, smiling at him.

"So, you want me to go in and help them? Is that what your trying to say?" T-Dog chuckles.

"Why not? I'm sure you're a good cook."

"And what makes you say that?" T-Dog pauses for a bit, examining Gwen from head to toe.

"Well good looking women always tend to cook well." Gwen grabs her machete and hang it up on a tree.

"You know T-Dog, if I didn't know any better. I'd say your flirting with me." Gwen looks back at him. He stiffens up and begins to blush. But even then he walks up to Gwen, stopping inches from her.

"Well I was just thinking. You're a beautiful girl who deserves better. Someone who actually appreciates what you are and all the great things you can do."

"Oh and I suppose that someone your talking about is you right? Is that it?" Gwen fires back in a sarcastic tone. T-Dog puts his hand on her shoulder and begins rubbing it. "Why not." She grabs his hand and pushes it away. Her mood darkens, offended by what T-Dog told her.

"Stop. You better get down from that cloud of yours before you fall and have a nasty landing. I love Daryl okay. Our relationship may be different form everyone else around here but frankly that's nobody fucking business. So why don't ya'll leave us the fuck alone. Nothing you say or do will ever change my mind about him. My heart and kid belong to Daryl and Daryl only." Gwen then realizes that she just told T-Dog about her kid. His eyes widen.

"Your pregnant?"

"Shh!" Gwen looks around making sure nobody heard. "Nobody knows about this not even Daryl. You cant tell anyone about this. Please." She pleaded to him.

"Hey, hey its cool. I wont say a thing." T-Dog leans in. "So your saying Daryl don't even know about this?" Gwen shakes her head.

"I just found out last night. I'm afraid to tell even him."

"Look I think you-"

"Walker. Walker!" Andrea announced. Everyone is alarmed and gather around the RV. Rick and Shane come out of their tents.

"Just the one?" Rick asked. Andrea gets the binoculars and tries to get a closer look. With the setting sun hitting the lends, Andrea was unable to see the walker. She sets down the binocs and grabs Dales rifle.

"I bet I can nail it from here."

"No, no, Andrea. Put the gun down." Rick demands getting a hunting knife weapon. Shane, Glenn and T-Dog do the same.

"You'd best let us handle this." Shane begins heading out to the filed.

"Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with walkers." Rick tried pleading with him.

"What for man? We go it covered." Shane ignored him walking out onto the field. T-Dog and Glenn followed. Rick saw he had no choice for this one.

"Damn it!" He hissed as he ran after the rest. Gwen waited by the gate with her machete in case she was needed. Andrea looks at the rifle for a moment then lays down aiming the rifle at the approaching walker.

"Andrea, don't." Dale pleaded Andrea not shoot, hanging on to the stair rail on the RV.

"Back off, Dale." Andrea takes aim. Still unable to see clearly through the glair of the sun, Andrea shoots anyway. Their was silence. Rick's fait scream are herd.

"No!" Gwen's heart sinks, fearing the worst.

"No! Stop!" Rick yelled out. Gwen begins to run out into the filed.

"Oh God!" She approaches everyone and sees Daryl covered in blood and unconscious, being carried by Shane and Rick. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God is he dead?!" Gwen begins whimpering. Andrea and Dale catch up.

"Oh, my God is he okay?" Andrea asked joining them.

"Unconscious. You just grazed him." Rick confirmed looking at Gwen and Andrea. Glenn grabs the crossbow and see the necklace hanging.

"But look at him. What happed? He's wearing ears." Rick looks up and sees Hershel and the rest of the group waiting by the gate. He rips the necklace off Daryl, hiding it in his shirt.

"Lets keep that to our ourselves."

"Guy's, isn't this Sophia's?" T-Dog asked. Everyone turns to look at T-Dog holding up the same doll Gwen had given Sophia before she disappeared.

Rick and Shane get Daryl in the house to be treated. They placed him in the same room Gwen was, just last night. Hershel begins to prep for Daryl's treatment.

"Gwen. I'm gonna need you to sit on the bed with him, in case he needs to be held down." Hershel looked over at Gwen who was still pasting back and forth. She gets on the bed, adjusting herself so Daryl's back is laying on her lap. Hershel hands her a wet towel. "I need you to clean him up a bit." She takes the wet towel and begins to wipe off the blood and dirt off him. Daryl regains consciousness with a jolt as soon as Hershel sticks him with the needle. Gwen wraps her arms around him, trying to hold him down.

"Baby its okay. You blacked out." Daryl freezes and looks around the room. "Its okay." He exhales and falls back to Gwen.

"Put this up to your head. It'll stop the bleeding." Hershel hands Daryl a moist cloth. He takes it and puts it up to his head where the bullet scraped him. "Now if you just hold still. I could stitch your wounds properly." Hershel looks at Daryl still with the needle in hand. Rick walks around the bed, opening the map, laying it out on the bed.

"Daryl, I don't mean to slam you down with questions in your current conditions. But we need to know where did you find the doll?" Daryl looks at Rick then down at the map.

"I found it washed up on the creek bed right there." He points to a location on the map. "She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere." Rick looks at Gwen and back at Shane who was sitting in a chair silently.

"Cuts the grid almost in half."

"Yeah, you're welcome." Gwen looks up at Hershel.

"How's he looking?"

"I had no idea we'd be going through the antibiotics so quickly." As Hershel continued to stitch up Daryl. He stiffens up from the pain, forcing him to grab Gwen's hand and squeeze it. Not minding the pain from him, she doesn't flinch.

Hershel finishes the stitching and begins to wash his hands. Daryl looks at his wound and begins to mess with it. Gwen snatches his hand away, telling him to leave it alone. "Any idea what happened to my horse?"

"Yeah, the one who almost killed me? If it's smart, it left the country." Daryl lays back on Gwen's lap, keeping the cloth up to his bleeding head. Rick gets up, taking the map with him.

"We call that one Nelly, as in nervous Nelly. I could have told you she'd throw you off if you'd bothered to ask." Hershel walks up to Rick, drying his hands. "It's a wonder you people have survived this long." Rick doesn't answer leaving the room with Shane following. "Gwen, I will give you a moment to finish cleaning him off. I'll come back in a while to bandage up the wounds."

"Its okay. I got it." Hershel looks back at her. "I got experience." She adds.

"Very well. I'll leave the bandages here and leave you two alone." Hershel leaves the room to Daryl and Gwen. She continues to clean up the drying up blood and dirt. He opens his eyes looking up at her.

"I hate you for feeling pity for me."

"I don't feel pity. I'm just glad to know your alive." she pauses as she rubes his cheekbone. "When I saw you unconscious and covered in blood. I honestly thought the worst. That Andrea actually put a bullet in you." He smirks.

"So it was her that shot me. Hmm, good thing she's got shitty aim then." She leans down kissing his head.

"We need to get you cleaned, like all the way." He narrows his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm not gonna get you cleaned up all the way by just rubbing a wet cloth on you."

"I'm tired. Can I just sleep?" Gwen smiles at his complaining.

"You can do all the sleeping your heart desires when you get out the showers and I've already bandaged you up." He only stares at her. "Come on." Gwen begins to move off the bed. Daryl manages to lean up and gets off the bed as well.

Without anyone seeing them. Gwen sneaks Daryl in the bathroom.

"I'll keep watch to make sure nobody walks in." He looks at her for a moment. Daryl grabs her hand, pulling her close. And for the first time, he gives her a kiss. After Daryl got cleaned up, they headed back to the room. Their, Gwen bandaged him up. As she wrapped the one around his head, he stared at her.

"What? You been giving me that look ever since Hershel finished stitching you up. Is something bothering you?" He shakes his head.

"Nah." He pauses, examining her face. "Your beautiful. You always been beautiful." Hearing something like that come out of Daryl for the first time, Gwen blushes, looking down.

"So my beautifulness is what's bothering you?" She pauses, realizing something. "Why are you being so nice to me?" He shakes his head again, turning around.

"Just ignore me." Gwen puts her hand on his back, gently turning him back around.

"I don't wanna ignore you. If anything is on your mind, I want you to tell me. I don't want you to go through anything alone. I'm here for you." He smirks.

"If you knew any better, you'd of left me a long time ago. Find someone better who actually treats you better than I do."

"And what if I don't know any better. What if I don't want anyone else. I'm happy with you, no matter how you treat me."

"You could have been married somebody rich. Have kids by now. Property, benefits, money. Anything you could ever want."

"True, but If it wasn't for you I also would have been long dead." She grabs his hands "You have kept me alive all this time. Yeah, maybe I would have had kids already. But non from you. I wouldn't trade you for the world, not one minute of it." She moves her hands up and around his neck. "I love my life. Sure we don't always see eye to eye on everything. We argue here and their, yell at each other. But so what. I still and will always forever love you." Daryl looks at her a moment and leans down kissing her again. He backs her up to the edge of the bed, gently laying her down on the bed.

* * *

Later that night. Gwen slept on the bed with Daryl, half way sitting up. And for the first time ever, Daryl laid his head on her belly with his arm wrapped around her waist, keeping off his wounds. He was about half asleep when Carol quietly came in with two plats of the dinner they had made. He turns around covering his exposed torso from her. She sets them down on the counter next to the bed.

"How are you feeling?" She asked looking at the bandage around his head.

"As good as I look." Daryl answered, turning back around.

"I brought you guys some dinner. You must be starving." Daryl turns back, looking at the plats and up at Carol. She leans down and gives him a peck on his head wound, making him flinch. He narrows his eyes looking at her, not sure why she did it.

"Watch out, I got stitches, and-" He points his eyes up to Gwen who was still sound asleep. Carol remains quiet for a bit.

"You need to know something." she speaks. Daryl turns back to look at Carol once again. "You did more for my little girl today, than her own daddy ever did in his life."

"I didn't do anything Rick or Shane wouldn't of done."

"I know. Your as ever bit as good as them. Every bit." Carol looked at him for a moment more, before leaving the room. Daryl turns around and lays back on Gwen once again, falling asleep.


	6. Jr

**Desert Eagle**

_Setting- Secrets_

Chapter 6 Jr

The next day, seemed like a better day for everyone. Carl was back on his feet, up and moving around. Daryl got out the house and rested back in his tent. Glenn was handing out peaches. Andrea comes out the RV and heads to Daryl and Gwen's tent. She found him in their resting and has a seat.

"Hey." She hands him a book "This is not that great, but…" He skims through the book and narrows his eyes.

"What, no pictures?"

"I'm sorry. I feel like shit."

"Yeah. You and me both." He adjusts his pillow, laying back down.

"I don't expect you to forgive me, but if there's anything I can do.."

"You were trying to protect the group. We're good." He accepts her apology. She smiles and heads out. "But, hey," She stops and looks back at him. "You shoot me again, you best pray I'm dead." She smiles and walks away. Gwen comes in shortly, having a seat were Andrea was and hands him a peach.

"A peach?"

"Since your to stubborn to eat anything, I figured I bring you one." Gwen takes a bite out of hers.

"Its not that I'm stubborn. The group needs the food more than I do."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you have to starve yourself." Daryl took a bite of his peach.

"I'm gonna go out and try look for the girl. Look around the creek bed where I found the doll." Gwen narrows her eyes.

"Are you kidding? No, you need to rest." Daryl looks at her, rolling his eyes. "At least for today. Then I'll help you look first thing tomorrow. After what happened to you, I'm not letting you go out their alone again. Please, for my piece of mind." Daryl looks at her a moment, exhaling deeply. He gives in.

"Alright, fine." Gwen smiles and leans down giving him a peck. "Thank you." She gets up and heads out. T-Dog spots her, rushing over.

"What he say?" Gwen ignores him, walking away "You didn't tell him?" he chases after.

"No."

"You have to tell him sometime. You're pregnant."

"I know." She hisses at him

"If you don't tell him who's gonna get you the vitamins, medicine, a nice pillow?"

"T-Dog your pressuring me. I need to think this through." T-Dog grabes some of his jerky and hands it to her.

"Here, have some of my share."

"Food is scares. I'm not taking more than I should."

"You need to eat. Take it, you're too skinny. And if you're not gonna let your boy take care of you, than someone has to."

"T-Dog I appreciate you're concern, I really do. But if you don't keep quiet about this, you're gonna blow everything out of proportion."

"Gwen, you have a medical condition." T-Dog pushed. She chuckles and continues to walk away. He chases after her. "I'll ask Glenn to make another run into town. Just tell me what you need."

"I need you to be quiet about this. Okay?" she spat.

"Gwen." T-Dog and Gwen look over back at the camp. It was Andrea asking for her. "Come here for a sec." Gwen looks at T-Dog, and walks away to Andrea.

"Where all going for gun practice. Wanna help Rick and Shane instruct? You're the only other woman here that can shoot." Gwen looks over at Rick and Shane by the RV. She then looks back at Daryl's tent.

"Ehh, I would, but I'd much rather stay with Daryl. I just begged him to take the day off, since you shot him. So if he needs me, I wanna be around." Andrea exhales.

"I'm sorry. I really am."

"Its okay. You didn't kill him. Its all that matters." Andrea walks back over to Rick and Shane. Gwen looks back and sees T-Dog approaching her again.

"T-Dog lets go, man" Shane's voice is herd back from the RV. He stops and looks at him and back at Gwen, who only stared at him. He then heads in the direction everyone else was.

* * *

Soon everyone loaded up in three cars and headed out for gun training. Gwen headed back to the tent. Daryl was still laying down, messing with his arrows. She grabs the book Andrea had let him borrow and had a seat, skimming through it, irritated.

"Camps quiet. Where is everyone?" Daryl asked. Gwen didn't take her eyes off the book.

"Rick and Shane took em all out for gun practice."

"You didn't go?"

"Hmp. Please, I got other things to do." She looks over at him. He smirks and looks away.

"Didn't we just do it last night?" Gwen lightly laughs. She gets up and sits next to him, putting her hand on his exposed chest.

"That's not what I meant."

"Yeah, what did you mean?" Gwen looks over at his crossbow, and back at him.

"I was just thinking. You never taught me how to use your crossbow. I'd like to know how…in case, I'm ever the one to have to use it."

"Being killed by my own crossbow, now wouldn't that be a bitch." She smiles, leaning down, giving him a peck.

"Come on, lets go." She gets up and grabs his crossbow.

* * *

Daryl takes Gwen out to teach her to use his crossbow, a little further out from camp. Setting up a target, they stand about twenty feet away.

"So first thing you wanna do is hold from the bottom, and have your dominate hand on the trigger at all times, you get better balance like that. The little scope is gonna be you're third eyes. You look through this to aim at your target, keep both eyes open and keep the bow close to your body, like your holding a gun. That's what this back part is for. The front bottom part is what holds your arrows, but it can only hold so many, so shoot wisely. You don't wanna go wasting arrows on ghosts. When you load an arrow, you gotta pull back the wire until you hear a click and when you load, make sure the yellow fin on the arrow in facing up, you get better leverage so your arrow wont miss the target. When your not aiming, hold the bow up, so you don't shoot anybody. Now did you get everything I said?"

"Yeah." Daryl hands her the crossbow unloaded.

"Lets see if you paid attention then." Gwen handles and load the bow as she was told and aims at the target, looking through the scope for a few moments. She shoots the bow and holds it up just as she was told. "Lets go see how you did."

They head up to the target and see Gwen's almost accurate aiming, with the arrow missing by inches. "Not so bad. You did however take to long in shooting it."

"Its my first time using it babe. I don't have years of experience like you do."

"Don't matter how much experience you have. When your life depends on it, speed and accuracy could mean the difference between life and death. I would know."

* * *

That afternoon, everyone comes back form gun training. Glenn and Gwen join the group. Carl bragged to Glenn and Gwen about how good he was on his first try.

"You know Carl, at this rate you could probably be a pro by the age of 17. A lot more better than you're dad." Gwen encouraged him. He smiled showing them the gun he got to use and what he got to shoot.

After the conversation and lunch being ready, Carl and Glenn went their way to get their plate. Seeing that she was alone with T-Dog. Gwen walked away not wanting to deal with him. He chases after her.

"Mind you business T." Gwen avoids him by heading back to her tent. She enters and see Daryl was asleep. Not wanting to wake him, she heads back out to grab a plate to eat. Not long after Dale puts a slice of Spam on Carol's plate. By the smell of the meat, Gwen sets the plate down and walks a few feet away from the camp, having a seat on a rock. She puts her hand on her mouth trying not to vomit. Dale notices her odd behavior and follows her. He stands by her but says nothing for a bit. Gwen also remains quiet.

"My wife was pregnant once. She miscarried and we didn't try again after that."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but…why are you telling me this?" Gwen didn't make eye contact, suspecting he might know about the baby.

"The thing that I remember the most is how nauseated she became at the smell of cooking meat. And she was a meat-eating gal, my wife, but with the pregnancy…that Thanksgiving, the turkey-she couldn't be in the house for two days, until it aired out, poor thing."

"What exactly are you trying to say, Dale?" Gwen continued to play dumb. He has a seat next to her.

"Its pretty obvious, Gwen. You're pregnant." Her eyes widen, fearing that now another person knows.

"Am I that obvious?"

"Not entirely. I do however recognize the symptoms and you seem to be showing a lot of them." She exhales, almost in regret.

"I haven't told Daryl. I can't." Gwen hides her face, beginning to tear up.

"Because of what he'll say?"

"Because I don't know if the baby's his or not." Dale narrows his eyes, kneeling down to face her.

"What makes you question that?" She dies her eyes and sniffs, taking a deep breath.

"That morning before Rick joined the group. Merle caught me alone in the woods…he raped me. Then at the CDC, Daryl and I. We were both dunk so we took advantage of that night."

"I don't understand. Haven't you been wanting a baby for a long time anyway?"

"Yes, but if its Merle's. I don't want to carry that burden around, lying to Daryl, telling him that the baby is his? I cant do that to him, Dale."

"You cant think like that. We can still find joy and we can still take strength from each other."

"Do you really think this thing, this baby has a chance, that it could grow up and live a happy life? Look at me in the eye and tell me that this baby will grow up to be your age and die happy. Tell me you believe that. Even if you do. I know that deep inside, you know it will never happen. Not in this life." Dale remained silent. "Didn't think so." She gets up and finds T-Dog.

"Hay, T. I've been thinking about what you said about needing help. And you're right that I do." He smiles.

"Name it, I got you."

"If Glenn is still making that run into town, give him this." She hand him a piece of paper.

"You got it." He takes the paper.

"Thank you." She gives him a hug.

T-Dog leaves to give Glenn the paper. He and Maggie left as soon as lunch was over. Gwen heads back to their tent as Daryl was waking up from a nap he took earlier. She has a set next to him.

"Glenn and Maggie when into town again for another pharmacy run. If they bring anymore, painkillers, you'll need em." Daryl notices the down mood on Gwen.

"Hay, something bothering you?" Gwen looks at him for a bit; _We can still find joy and we can still take strength from each other. But if its Merle's. I don't want to carry that burden around, lying to Daryl, telling him that the baby is his? I cant do that to him, Dale. _Gwen's mind raced, still not having made the decision whether to aboard the baby or not. Daryl narrowed his eyes at her.

"I love you Daryl. No matter what happens. I just want you to know that I always love you."

"The hell are saying?" She gets up grabbing her bag and heads out. "Gwen!" Daryl tried calling out for her again. He gets up to try and go after her. By the time he gets out the tent, Gwen was already half way heading to the stables. With his stitches still fresh, he was in no condition to run after her. "Damn it."

Gwen's POV

I headed out to the stables. I wanted to leave, but the same time I didn't. All I really needed was some time alone and away from everyone. I needed to think about what I really wanted to do with this baby. Like Dale said earlier, I have always wanted a baby. But not like this. I grabbed my bag and saw the used pregnancy test, it still had the plus sign on it. This was making my decision much harder.

* * *

It was late afternoon, Glenn and Maggie had returned. From what I saw, Maggie was pissed about something, she walked up to Lori, thrower something at her and began yelling. I figured it was time for me to get back to the tent.

When I did, Daryl was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't in the tent and his crossbow was gone. I just hope he didn't go out to find Sophia in his conditions.

It wasn't long when I sat down that T-Dog came in. He had the pills in hand.

"Hey."

"Hey." I return his greeting.

"Where's your boy at?" he asks looking around.

"I don't know. Its best if he isn't here anyway."

"Glenn and Maggie are back." I see him looking at the box of pills, seeing what they where for the first time. "Morning-after pills…will they even work?" He hands them to me.

"I don't know. I don't know if I even want them to. I've spent all day trying to think about it and I still cant make a decision."

"He huh…he also got theses, too. He said just in case you change your mind." I look up at him concerned.

"Dose he know too?"

"Briefly, I told him to keep quiet about it. But I don't you're the only one pregnant in this camp." I narrow my eyes at him.

"What? Who else is?"

"I don't know. I'm guessing Glenn dose know, by the same pills he got besides yours." I finally look in the bag to see what else did T-Dog got me.

"Prenatal vitamins. That's a hell of a choice." I laughed almost wanting to cry.

"Yeah, well I'm glad it not mine to make." He looks out the tent, then back at me. "Gwen, we're friends aren't we?" I didn't quit get where he was going with this.

"With everything that we've been though, yeah. I'd say we are."

"I cant tell you what to do. I could never tell you something like that. But your choice…maybe you shouldn't make it alone."

"And if I do?"

"Just make sure it's the right one." He looks at me for a bit, then leaves. I look back at the pills. For a second I thought about keeping it and forgetting about these damn abortion pills. Then I remembered what happened that morning, it was all to clear. _"Merle! What are you doing hear, sneaking up on me like that"? _Seeing that look on his face, backing me up into the tree. _"You know little Gwen, you've been catching my eye lately. The only reason I haven't been able to do anything Is because Daryl has been constantly protecting your sweet ass." _he looks around _"And now that he's not hear. Well, I can do just about anything to ya." _

"_Um, Merle don't you have to leave with the group?"_

"_I have time to spare." _Backs me right up into a tree and aggressively grabs my arms, forcing me to drop the machete. How he roughly kissed me and making his way down to my neck.

"_Merle stop!" _Remembering everything he did, shoving me to the ground. Forcing his way inside me. Three minutes of terror.

"_If you mention any of this to Daryl. I will kill ya. Don't think I wont." _That was it. I was not gonna have his thing growing inside me. "We could always try again, maybe." I tell myself referring to Daryl. Maybe then I will know for sure that it will be his. I open a box and break open all the seals to each pill, gather them all in my hand and toss them in my mouth, chasing them with water. It was done. By tomorrow morning, this thing will be gone. If this baby was Daryl's, then god forgive me for passing it up. But I was not gonna keep that burden with me. I waited for a bit till I felt the pills hit my stomach. Once they did. I gathered everything T-Dog gave me and put it in my bag. I then head out for some fresh air.

* * *

Normal POV:

A while later after Gwen had left. Daryl comes back in. Still with no Gwen around, he puts his crossbow down and notices her bag was back. He looks around and see a blue box poking out of the bag. Never had seen a blue box in her bag before, Daryl's curiosity gets the better of him. He opens her bag and see a few other blue boxes, just like the one he spotted. Seeing an opened one, he grabs it and reads what they are, the rest reading the same.

"What the hell?" Daryl looks back in the bag and sees the prenatal vitamins and a used pregnancy test at the bottom of the bag. Seeing the plus sign and the pills. Daryl realizes what Gwen did. Rage takes over him as he heads out to find her.

He spots her over by one of the farm wells, sitting down facing the fields. He approaches her. Gwen see him coming closer and gets up. He stops a few feet away from her, staring at her.

"You got something you wanna tell me?" Gwen saw the rage in him, a rage she's never seen from him before.

"I'm pregnant."

"Are you?" He tosses the open box of pills and used pregnancy test to her feet.

"By tomorrow morning I wont be." She whispers. He stares at her, only glaring, trying to keep himself from going off on her. "You can yell if you want. Scream if you have to, but please say something." Daryl finally walks up to her and stops inches away.

"When the hell where you gonna tell me? Or where you even gonna say anything at all? Get rid of the baby so I don't find out and keep pretending nothing even happened."

"You know now."

"No, I found out. Did you sent Chinaman to get theses damn pills? Is that right?"

"I'm not even sure if this baby is even yours." Gwen finally came out with the truth. Daryl is stunned.

"What?"

"Merle raped me. The morning before he disappeared, he raped me in the woods. Then you and I fucked at the CDC a few days later, so how the hell should I know!"

"No, no, don't put this on him! Merle may be as asshole but he aint no rapist."

"He's been gone for more than half your life. You weren't their that morning! He did it!" She pauses, Gwen tries to keep her tears in "Its why I don't want it. I don't want to carry his abomination. Or do you really want me to bring a baby into a world like this? To live a short curl life?"

"How can you think like that!?"

"We cant even protect ourselves."

"So this is your solution? Did you ever stop to think as to what I want?"

"I thought about it every second. But I was afraid that if would bring up a subject like that, you would blow it away or get angry. By the way you always acted around children, I always assumed you never wanted any. Its why I never said anything. Don't you see Daryl, I wanted us to have a baby, but not like this. Not without knowing you would be the father." The two of them remained silent for a bit.

"We can still make it work." Daryl spoke up

"How? I took the pills, its probably already too late."

"We can still try and figure it out. Shouldn't we try and figure it out? You want this baby I know you do. I can see it in you, you still want it."

"Daryl its too late. Even if its yours, I was not gonna give birth in a ditch. Besides, with every cry it makes will put it and everyone we care about in danger." Daryl looks away still upset.

"So that's it then. Your not even gonna give it a chance?"

"You didn't go through that awful experience. I don't wanna carry that burden."

"Fine. Good luck having on your conscious, that you killed what could have been our child. It really shows how much you cared about us." He turns around and begins to walk away "And just for the record…" Daryl turns to look at her one last time "You can find somewhere else to sleep tonight and don't speak to me again."

Gwen watches him walk away and begins to break down, falling back on her knees. Back at the tent, Daryl only grabs her bag and sets it outside the tent. He closes the tent and has a seat, thinking over everything that had just happened. Only one tear slipped his eye. Knowing the fact that he would have been a father if Gwen had not aborted it. He finally would have had something to love and care for. Something what would have been his to protect. Something that was missing in his life besides Gwen, and now it was gone. Hearing Carol's voice outside, is when he realized, she was in the same place as he was. Only she did have a child that she raised and loved. She was a damaged person just like he was. That gave Daryl the motivation and strength to find Sophia tomorrow.


	7. I'm Losing You

Desert Eagle

Chapter 7 I'm Losing You

A few days have gone bye ever since Gwen and Daryl's argument. Gwen kept to Daryl's word and hasn't spoken to him since. She knew how he worked, and wanted to give him his time and space. Everyone was having breakfast, it seemed like a normal morning. Gwen and Andrea were sharpening their knifes, aside from eating. Even though Gwen was sitting across from Daryl, he would not take his eyes off this plate to look at her even once. Glenn gets up and walks to the front of the group, getting their attention.

"Um, guys." Everyone looks up at him "So…the barn is full of walkers." The whole camp goes dead quiet, they are all quiet stunned by the news. Shane is the first to drop what he was doing and heads out to the barn. Pissed off. Not wanting Shane to do anything stupid, Rick follows. As does everyone else.

Their, Shane peeks through a crack in the barn, sure enough he saw about a dozen walkers inside. One notices Shane and begins to growl at him. He back off and looks at Rick.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this."

"No, I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land."

"God, this is our lives!"

"Lower you voice." Glenn tried to keep things calm.

"We cant just sweet this under the rug and pretend like thing is going on under our noses." Gwen added.

"It aint alright. Not remotely. We've ether got to go in there we've got to make it right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time."

"We cant go." Rick snapped at Shane.

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol spoke from behind the group. Shane exhales in an irritated way, almost as if she was joking.

"Okay. Okay, I think its time we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"Shane, we're not leaving Sophia behind." Rick spat. Daryl steps in.

"I'm close to finding this girl. I jut found her damn doll a few days ago."

"You found a doll. Daryl. That's what you did, you found a doll." Shane argues back.

"You don't know what the hell your talking about." Daryl tries to charge at Shane. Rick and the others get in between them to avoid any conflict.

"I'm just saying what needs to be said. You got a good lead, its in the first 48 hours."

"Shane stop." Rick tries to intervene.

"Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and she saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction." Not liking that Shane was insulting and making it sound as if he hasn't been useful. Daryl snaps.

"Shut the fuck up!" Daryl and Shane both charge at each other. Without laying a hand on one another, they are both held back by the group.

"What are you doing! Come at me man!" Shane continues to provoke Daryl. Even though Daryl had told Gwen to stay away from him, she still held him back, along with Andrea.

"Back off!" Rick spat. "Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out."

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane snapped.

"Enough!" Lori stepped in front of Shane.

"If we're gonna stay, If we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it, This is his land." Rick added to the argument. Shane was about to argue back when Dale steps in.

"Hershel sees those things in their as people-sick people-his wife, his, his stepson." Rick narrows his eyes at him.

"You knew?"

"A few days ago, I talked to Hershel."

"And you didn't say anything?" Shane spat.

"I thought we could survive a few more days. We did. I was waiting to see if anything happened, I wanted to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one."

"This man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those thing in there are alive or no!" Shane once again yelled, looking at Rick. With all the yelling and arguing. The barn doors begin to rattle. The walkers inside began growling, having gained interest in what was happening outside. Most of the group backed off, scared. Others stood their ground.

"Everyone back up to camp!" Rick demanded everyone. They did so. Rick was gonna follow when he saw that Shane had not moved.

"Shane, lets go."

"Nah, man. Someone needs to stay here and keep watch over this damn barn."

"Fine. Just don't do anything stupid till I talk to Hershel."

"Yeah, yeah." Shane blows him off. Rick walk back up to camp irritated.

Back at camp, everyone is shaken up by the news of the walkers in the barn, but still try and go on about their day. Gwen sees an opportunity to try and talk to Daryl about what happened a few days ago, seeing that his tent was open. She heads in hoping for the best.

"Daryl. Can I talk to you?" He ignores her as he continues to gather some things. "Daryl?"

"I thought I made it clear to stay away and not talk to me?" He snapped.

"I…I need you to hear me out. Explain, things."

"I heard enough. You made your point. So have I." With that, Daryl walks away out towards the stables.

In the stables, he struggles to put up a saddle, with his wound still a bit fresh. He takes a step back and leans his hands on the saddle, catching his breath. Carol comes and sees what he's going to do, with the saddle and everything.

"You can't."

"I'm fine." Daryl leans back up and heads in a stable, to prep a horse.

"Hershel said you need to heal."

"Yeah, I don't care."

"Well I do. And so does Gwen." Daryl ignored her. "Rick's going out later to follow the trail." Carol continued. He didn't take his eyes off what he was doing.

"Yeah, well, I aint gonna sit around and do nothing."

"No. you're gonna go out there and get yourself hurt even worse. Take Gwen with you." He continues to ignore her. Carol tries to hold back her tears. "We don't know if we're gonna find her, Daryl." He stops and looks back at her "We don't. I don't." Her tears begin to slip out her eyes. Daryl steps out the stables and looks at her, not believing that she was giving up on her own daughter.

"What?"

"Can't lose you, too." With everything that was going on with him and Gwen, and now seeing that Carol cares for him too. Daryl drops the rains and walks over to the saddle. He looks back at her one more time, then throws the saddle, pissed off. Stretching his wound, Daryl nearly falls to his knees from the pain. Carol rushes over to him.

"Are you all right?"

"Just leave me be." Nearly pushing her away, he gets to his feet and walks away. "Stupid bitch."

In camp, Andrea finds Gwen sitting on a bench, looking out into the fields.

"I noticed something's been bothering you these past days."

"Sorry." Andrea narrows her eyes not getting why she apologized.

"Don't be. I was actually hoping you could come with T-Dog and I to help look for Sophia. What do you say?" Gwen finally takes her eyes off the fields and looks at her. "Its something to get your mind off, whatever it is that's bothering you." She added.

"Yeah…yeah sure. Why not." She breaks a smile.

"Rick is having a word with Hershel about the walkers in the barn, so we'll head out after."

"Sounds good."

"I'll go get our guns." Andrea heads to the RV. Not long Carol comes back from the barn. She sees Gwen still sitting on the bench, so she joins her.

"I don't mean to be nosey. But, is their something wrong between you and Daryl?" Gwen chuckles.

"What makes you say that?"

"Not sure, I've noticed you two have been distant lately. And Daryl, well he seem more moody than usual." Gwen looks down at herself knowing she's the main reason why he was so moody to everyone.

"I guess its just a phase he's going through." Carol looks at her unconvinced.

"Its more than that, isn't it?" Without looking up at her, Gwen begins to cry. She nodes, holding her head down.

"I messed up Carol. I messed up bad, and now Daryl hates me for it." Carol wraps an arm around her in comfort.

"Honey, I'm sure Daryl doesn't hate you."

"No, he does. I know he does."

Off in a distance, Daryl spots Gwen and Carol on the bench. He stared at them for a bit, suddenly feeling bad for what he said to Carol, not ten minutes ago.

Andrea comes out the RV, soon after. The three women stood around the bench for a bit. Until Gwen and Andrea got up and left. Daryl brushes it off and heads out for some time to himself.

It was mid-day. Andrea and Gwen relived Shane of his barn watch shift. The two women stood near the tractor, getting to know each other on a more personal basis, Becoming better acquainted. It wasn't long before Rick came looking for Shane.

"Ladies, any of you two seen Shane?" Gwen and Andrea looked at each other.

"He should be out in camp. We got watch till he gets back." Andrea answered.

"Thank you. Listen I need one of you two, to help arrange a new search on the map." Gwen and Andrea exchange looks again, wondering who should go.

"Go on, I'll keep watch." Gwen, gently nudges Andrea, letting her go. She smiles and heads off with Rick. Gwen turns back around and looks at the barn.

Gwen's POV:

I know that the would is at shit, but man does this suck ass. Daryl and I have broken up, or at least I'm sure we have. After what happened, I'd be an idiot, not to believe that we are over. I broke his heart. I took away the one thing he needed in life. And that was to care for something of his own, even if it wasn't his. Something to care for like he wasn't as a child. I think that is why he wants to find Sophia so bad. To end Carol's suffering, knowing he did some good to someone he hardly knows.

Hell, ever since Merle's disappearance, he's come a long way. He's beginning to care for others. Something he's never been able to do under his constant shadow. Of cores he denies it all, by being a total hard-ass. But he's earned his place.

After a while after Andrea had left with Rick, I began feeling a little nocuous. Its been about a week since I took the damn pills, and I'm still feeling the symptoms as if I would of still been pregnant. I lean down and vomit what looked like nothing but liquids. I lean back up, turning around and see Andrea. She had come back at the wrong time, having a look of concern on her face.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I guess the symptoms haven't passed yet."

"What symptoms?" That's when I realized, she still didn't know about the whole thing.

"Huh….nothing. Just upset stomach." She looked at me unconvinced. "So what's the plan? Rick say anything?" I quickly changed the subject.

"Well we were planning out on a new search grid, but Hershel wanted to have a word with him. So I came back here. Anything noise come from in their?"

"Not a peep."

Normal POV:

After have called Carol a bitch earlier in that day. Daryl found some time to himself, to think over everything, by a pond. Letting his feet dangle in the water, Daryl looks back for some reason and spots a bunch of Cherokee roses. He remembered what he had said to Carol a few days ago. He gets up and heads back to camp to find her, bringing her back to the pond. As she followed close behind, he points at the roses.

"You see it?"

"See what?" He brings her up to were all the flowers where.

"I'll find her." Carol looks at the flowers, not understanding why he was being so nice to her after what he had called her earlier that day. Not seeing the reaction he was hoping for. Daryl was hesitant to apologize to her. After all, it is what he really brought her over here for.

"Hell, I'm sorry about what happened this morning."

"You wanted to look for her." She pauses "Why? This whole time I've just wanted to ask you."

"`Cause I think she's still out there." He whispered to her. Carol tries to break a small smile. "Truth is, what else I got to do?" She narrows her eyes at him. Not wanting to bring up the subject between him and Gwen. Carol steps up to the flowers and rubs one of the peddles.

"Well find her. We will." She looks back at him. Daryl breaks a very small smile, almost unrecognizable. "I see it."

After a long time waiting on Rick, T-Dog finds Andrea and Gwen still keeping watch on the barn. With nothing herd from Rick.

"Where the hell is Rick?" Weren't we suppose to leave a long ass time ago?"

"We were kinda wondering the same thing." Gwen looks back at him.

"Do you think he's up back at the house?" Andrea wondered.

"Hell only one way to find out." The three of them leave the barn and head up to the house. As they approach, they see that everyone is their. Glenn gets up, approaching them.

"Do you know what's going on?" T-Dog asks him, hoping he might know something.

"Where is everyone?"

"Have you seen Rick? We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago." Gwen and Andrea explained.

"Yeah, you were. What the hell?" Daryl speaks out, coming back from the pond with Carol, joining the group.

"Rick told us he was going out." Carol answers form behind him.

"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." Daryl turns around, pointing his hand out towards the trees. He then sees Shane coming up fast with the bag of guns. "What's all this?" As Shane approaches Daryl, he hands him a shotgun.

"You with me?"

"Yeah." Daryl takes the gun, unsure of what he's talking about.

"Time to grow up." Shane announces to everyone. He looks at Andrea and Gwen. "You two got your guns?"

"Yeah, Where's Dale?" Andrea questions.

"He's on his way." Shane grunts looking away. He looks at T-Dog and hands him a handgun. He takes it, narrowing his eyes.

"Thought we couldn't carry?"

"We can and we have to. Look, it was one thing sitting around picking daisies when we thought this place was safe. But now we know it aint. He looks at Glenn and hands him a shotgun "How about you, man. You gonna protect yours?" Glenn was hesitant to take it. He looks at Maggie and takes the gun anyway. Shane steps over to Maggie. "Can you shoot?"

"Can you stop? You do this, you hand out thee guns, my dad will make you leave tonight." Maggie warned him. Carl comes down from the porch.

"We have to stay, Shane." Lori, comes running out from inside the house.

"What's going on?"

"We aint going anywhere, okay? Now look Hershel, he's just gotta understand, okay? He-well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right? Shane knees down in front of Carl and holds out a small gun. "Now I want you to take this. You take it Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes you know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." Lori steps in, pushing Carl behind her.

"Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." Lori spat looking down at Shane. As Shane and Lori where arguing, Gwen turns around as sees Rick and Hershel off in the distance, coming back into the farm. She then sees what they were leading in front of them. Two walkers.

"Oh shit." Everyone goes silent, looking in the same direction as Gwen was. They all see the walkers being let by, Rick and Hershel.

"What is that?" Shane hisses as he begins to run out towards Rick and Hershel. Everyone begins to run after, as well.

They all catch up to them, stopping a little between the barn and the entrance of the house yard.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Shane, just back off." Rick spat, struggling with the male walker he was leading.

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel looked at each one of the group members holding their guns, with Daryl, being the only one aiming at the walker Rick had.

"Are you kidding me? You see what they're holding onto?" Shane yelled circling around Hershel and Rick.

"I see who I'm holding."

"No, man, you don't!"

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick tried to reason with Shane. But with his rage was no use.

"What you want to talk about, Rick? These thing aint sick. They're not people. They're dead! Aint got to feel nothing for them. `Cause all they do, they kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us!"

"Shane, shut up!" Rick spat. Shane stops himself in between the barn and the two walkers. He pulls out his gun and points it at the female walker Hershel was holding.

"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" He shoots the walker three times in the chest, irritating the walker.

"Stop it!"

"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" He shoots it again "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?!" Again, he shoots the walker. Pissing it off.

"Shane, enough!" Rick yelled.

"Yeah, you're right, man, that is enough." Finally, Shane walks up to the walker putting a bullet in its head. Making it drop to the ground, stunning everyone. Mainly Hershel dropping him to his knees. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough! Rick, it aint like it was before! Now if ya'll wanna live, if you want to survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." He runs to the barn, picking up a pickaxe and begins to try braking the locks open.

"No, Shane. Don't do this, brother. Wait!" Rick tries, pleading to Shane, to stop. It was no good. Shane manages to break the padlock open and bangs on the doors, provoking the walkers to come outside.

"Don't do it!" Glenn yells out, holding on to his shotgun tightly.

"This isn't the way! Please!" Rick yelled out one more time before the walkers begin coming out the barn. Shane takes aim and begins shooting. Gwen and Andrea join him upfront and begin shooting as well. Everyone else that had guns, joined them up on the frontline in taking down walkers. Shane stops for a bit to shoot the walker Rick had a hold of, he turns around and continues to shoot the walkers. Everyone else stood back in horror as more and more walkers came out.

After about a dozen walkers shot down. Everyone stopped their shooting as the barn was finally empty. Their victory is short lived as one last faint growling is heard from inside of the barn. A small walker emerges from the shadows of the barn. Everyone is stunned and horrified by who the small walker was. It was Sophia. Carol sees what her daughter has become, but run to her anyway. Before Carol could get any closer. Daryl gets a hold of her, dropping them both to the ground.

"Sophia? Sophia! Oh Sophia." Carl whimpered at the sight of her daughter. The entire group stood their watching little Sophia, slowly approach them. With Gwen crying as well, she begins to raise her gun on Sophia, only for Shane to put his hand on the gun, lowering it back down. Rick passes the frontline group and points his gun at Sophia. As she gets inches from him, Rick shoots her in the head, dropping her to the ground.


	8. The Dirt Under My Feet

**Desert Eagle**

Hay my readers, sorry its taken to long to post this chapter. As you can see its two episodes put together since Daryl makes brief appearances in both episodes. The poem that is mentioned is not mine but from Nataly_Leonova on twitter, she gave me permission to use some of her poetry, so their might be more in the future. Enjoy reading.

_Setting- __Nebraska and Triggerfinger_

Chapter 8 The Dirt Under My Feet

"Don't look. Don't look." Daryl's voice broke the silence. He tries to get Carol to her feet. Instead she pushes him away and runs back to the RV. Hershel's youngest daughter Beth's sobbing is heard as she makes her way to the pile of dead walkers. She stops and kneels down to one, flipping it on its back. It was her mother. Beth was cradling her dead Ma, when she woke up and clanged on to her. She begins screaming in fear as the walker tried biting her. Rick, Shane and the other rush over to, trying to separate her from the walker. T-Dog tries kicking it to get its attention, but did no good. Gwen comes around with a pickaxe and stabs it right through the head, killing it. Beth grabs on to her father traumatized by what just happened, they begin to walk back up to the house as some of the group members followed. Daryl followed them, only to head to the RV and check on Carol.

* * *

Some few members stayed behind, like T-Dog, Andrea and Gwen. She approaches Sophia's dead body and kneels down right to her. Gwen stares at her for a while, looking at the big open flesh wound on her neck. Andrea kneels on the other side and looks at Gwen.

"She's in a better place now." Andrea tries to look at the brighter side. Gwen remains silent, not taking her eyes off Sophia.

"A better place? She was alone and scared when she got bit. She had nobody. Not even a warm place to die peacefully." Gwen looks up at Andrea with tears running down her face "That's not a way for anyone to die, let alone a child lost in the woods." Gwen looks back down at Sophia and shakes her head. "She's didn't deserve this. To die like this. I should of just brought her back instead of listening to Rick."

"You guys did what you could."

"So this could happen?"

"You both went after her. I don't think anyone else in this group would of done the same as you two did."

"We all combed these woods inside and out looking for her. Just to find out she was in the barn as a fucking walker the whole time? I almost lost Daryl because of it. If I would of just gone with my gut and bring her back…" Gwen falls back on her bum, letting out her tears. Andrea sat back, not knowing what else to say to brighten up the mood.

A while later, Gwen calmed down, still sitting by Sophia and Andrea close by. Shane and Rick come back. The two girls get up off the ground to wait for instructions from Rick. While they waited, Andrea put a blanket over Sophia to keep the sight of her bite away from everyone.

"You want us to start burying?" T-Dog spoke.

"We need a service. Carol would want that."

"Yeah, we all would want that." Andrea and Gwen add. Rick remains quiet, looking down at Sophia's body under the blanket.

"Lets-Lets dig a grave for Sophia, and Annette and Shawn…over by those trees. And we'll need a truck to move the bodies."

"I'll get the keys." Jimmy was about to head out to get the truck keys, when Shane put his arm in front of him shaking his head in disapproval.

"No, I got the truck." He heads out.

"And the others? That's a lot of digging." the boy worried about the hard labor he'll have to help with.

"We bury the one's we love and burn the rest." Andrea corrected.

"Lets get to work." Lori moved. Andrea heads in the barn to look for anything of use. T-Dog and Gwen head back to camp to get their shovels.

"Girl, What's been bothering you these past few days. I mean apart from Sophia."

"I don't want to talk about it, or anything."

"You need to talk to someone. Its not healthy bottling up everything inside." Gwen remained silent. "Did you ever take the pills?" Gwen stops and looks at T-Dog.

"Please T, I don't want to talk about that…not after what happened. Especially not right now. I'm emotionally drained and don't know how much more I can take. Lets just do what we need to."

"Emotionally drained? How so?" Gwen stops and takes a deep breath, looking at T-Dog.

"Daryl and I broke up after he found that I aborted the baby. And now this, with Sophia…I, I just cant take anymore." Feeling bad for her, T-Dog gives her hug. Needing comfort from a friend, Gwen buries her head in his chest, letting out her pain.

Once Gwen calmed down. Her and T-Dog grabbed some shovels and headed back to the barn. Soon, Shane, T-Dog, Gwen, Andrea and the boy Jimmy, began to dig up four graves under some trees. After hours of digging, they place the bodies in the graves and bury them. Sophia being the first.

"That's it." T-Dog wipes the sweat off his forehead.

"I'll go get Carol and gather everyone else."

* * *

During the memorial, nobody said anything, only Hershel said his usual prayers. Carol was the only one out of the group that had not showed up. Daryl attended, but stood way from everyone else. Once the ceremony way over, everyone went their separate way. Andrea, Gwen and T-Dog went back to the barn to load up the bodies, to burn. Once by one. All the bodies piled up on the back of the truck. Dale stood by to keep watch. The last walker was tossed in the back as Rick came back from the house.

"A few more trips?"

"We got lucky. If that barn had any more, we could've been overrun." Andrea caught her breath.

"Good thing Shane did what he did." T-Dog added.

"You cant tell me this was right?" Dale opposed

"It wisent. It'll cost us with Hershel." Rick corrected.

"He's grieving. He'll come around, see we had no choice. Look, we all shot too this wisent all Shane." Andrea argued, still trying to catch her breath. T-Dog shakes his head.

"Look, I got no quoins about it. Walkers in my backyard? Mm-mmm." He walks to the front of the truck.

"I'm not saying that we should have taken care of the problem, but creating a panic to-"

"There's no point arguing about it. Its done. There's nothing we can do about it." Gwen, cuts off Dale.

"Better get moving." T-Dog spoke from the front of the truck. Andrea and Gwen sit on the tailgate, as T-Dog began driving. The three head out a few yards behind the barn and far from the house. They unload the rotting bodies in a pile.

"That's it. Were done. Shane and I will burn them later."

"Thank god. I was getting sick of that smell." Gwen complained.

"I'm gonna go ask Hershel and see if we can shower the smell off. Then think about what we're gonna make for lunch. It is about that time right?" Andrea looked at T-Dog and Gwen.

"I'll go get a fresh bucket of water."

* * *

Out by one of the pumps on the farm, near the forest. Gwen pumps some water out, grabbing some, to cool her off, from all the heat and sweat. As she cooled herself off, Gwen begins hearing rustling in the trees. Thinking it may be a walker, she readies her gun. Moments later Carol emerges form the trees all sweaty and filthy.

"Carol? Hay, Carol." Carol ignores her, as she continues to walk, emotionless. Gwen steps in front of Carol to get her to stop and see if she was okay. "Hay, hay. Its okay."

"Keep away." Carol whispered, trying to avoid Gwen by blowing her off. Seeing that she was dirty. Gwen gently sits Carol down by the well, and with the water in the bucket, she uses it to begin cleaning off Carol's hands and arms.

"Carol, I just want you to know, that I'm real sorry for Sophia."

"Thank you. I know you and Daryl tried your hardest to look for her." Gwen smirks, hearing her whisper.

"Nah, that was all him. Even after he was shot, he insisted in looking for her. He wouldn't stop. He didn't wanna give up on her like everyone else was." she pauses "You know, when Shane opened that barn, I don't think he had any idea she was in their. Hell I don't think any of us did. I guess he was just trying to keep everyone safe." Gwen finishes cleaning off Carol. She gets to her feet and holds out her hand out to Carol. "Come on. Lets head back to camp, I'll fix you something to eat." Carol takes her hand and they both head back to camp with a new bucket of water.

* * *

Once back in camp, word is that Beth has gone in a some sort of shock and that Rick and Glenn went out to find Hershel, seeing he was missing from the property. Maggie, Andrea, Lori and Patricia where all inside to make sure she was okay. Only T-Dog and Dale were the only ones at camp when Carol and Gwen arrived.

"Dale where is everyone?" Gwen looked at Dale who was up on the RV.

"Everyone is ether inside the house or gone."

"What do you mean gone?"

"Out doing their own thing, would be my guess."

"Okay, well I'm gonna make Carol something to eat, then I'll be out in a minute."

* * *

About twenty minutes in the RV. Gwen hands Carol her lunch and heads to the top of the RV to join Dale. She looks around the camp and notices all of Daryl's belongings missing.

"Where's Daryl?"

"Last I saw he headed out, way across the fields, had his bike and everything with him." Gwen looks out towards the fields to were Dale was pointing at. She see Lori about half way heading out. Dale looks at Gwen noticing the distance between her and Daryl.

"Everything okay between you two?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I've noticed the distance and silence between you." Gwen remains quiet. "Did you tell him about the baby?"

"I told him everything. The truth."

"And he didn't believe you?"

"No. He now sees me as some liar who killed our baby. Or what would have been."

"You aborted it?"

"What else was I suppose to do, Dale. It wasn't an easy decision and to be honest I didn't want Daryl to find out about the whole thing in the first place."

"But he did."

"And now he hates me for it. He wants me to stay away and leave him alone."

"Did you explain everything to him. That its was Merle who raped you and that you didn't want that?"

"I tried but he wouldn't listen. Every time I wanna explain things to him, he blows me off." Dale looks at her for a moment.

"Do you love him?"

"With all my heart."

"Then you need to head across that field, and explain to him that you didn't really have a choice."

"But he's not-"

"Make him listen. Let him know that even tough you did what you did. That you still care about him as much you did before all this even occurred." Gwen and Dale exchanged looks. He smiles at her, pointing his hand out to the field. Gwen smiles.

"Okay, you mind looking after Carol till I get back?"

"Sure."

"Thanks." Gwen gets down from the RV and heads out across the filed. As she approached Daryl's camp. Lori comes back a bit shaken up. She passes her, without taking her eyes off the ground.

"Don't waist your time." Lori keeps walking on. Gwen stops looking at Lori walk away and back at Daryl's camp. She debates weather she should give him some time to cool down or go on in and face him while he's still irritated. Gwen begins to slowly walk back to camp, but remembered what Dale just told her. _Make him listen. Let him know that even tough you did what you did. That you still care about him as much you did before all this even occurred. _She turns back around and heads over to Daryl's camp.

As Daryl sharpened a stick, he looks over and see Gwen approaching. He scoffs and looks away.

"What do you want?"

"Look, I understand if you don't wanna be around me after what I did or if you could ever forgive me. I don't expect you to. I know theirs no way I can ever take that back."

"What's your point?" Gwen knees down by him.

"My point is that even tough I did what I did. Didn't mean it was gonna change how I still feel about you. I know I took away something you so been wanting, even if it wasn't yours. I don't know if we could even try again in a world like this. No amount of sorry can ever replace what I did."

"Why didn't you just tell me in the beginning?"

"Honestly, how you were before, I was scared to even bring up the subject without you having to go off on me. I was afraid this would happen?"

"Well it did. So what do you want from me now?"

"Just for you to hear the truth. After all we been trough, everything. I still stuck by you're side, trough thick and thin. We've been through uglier arguments, to a point were we we're at each other's thoughts. But in the end we still came around and still stuck by each other."

"That was different."

"I know. I know you can never trust me again? Not after this? Makes me wonder if this is actually the end for the two of us?"

"If someone you thought loved you made you look like an idiot, by lying to your face and having you find out that they killed a baby that could have been yours. Would you believe them? Would you take them back? I specifically asked you in the church if you were pregnant, you said no, you fucking lied."

"I didn't know I was then. If Merle never would have done what he did, I would of told you I was pregnant from you eventually. Why? Because I love you to much to continuously lie to your face."

"Spare me your pity." Daryl gets up walking a few feet away.

"Its true." Gwen remained silent. She looks back up at him.

"I'm crazy for you

You're the prison and my heat attack

If AZ can be true

I should die while defending your back

Everything goes to shit

Let it be just the end of the world

Its okay, its so sweet

If you're close to me." Daryl looks back at Gwen as she finished the poem. "That's the poem you told me before the world ended remember." Daryl remained silent. "I'm sorry." Gwen turns around and walks back to camp.

* * *

That night after Gwen and Daryl had their discussion, Gwen stayed in the RV, to rest while everyone else was inside about to have dinner. It wasn't long when Carol comes in, shaken up."

"Where is Daryl?" Gwen narrows her eyes not sure why, Carol was asking where he was at, and more with a frantic tone.

"Way across the field. You'll see a campfire, he's out their. Carol, what's going on?"

"We need him to bring Lori back, she's gone. I think she went out looking for Rick and Hershel."

"Well he aint listening to anybody right now so, maybe you could try and talk some sense into him. I don't know." Carol nodes and heads out to the fields were she was told to go. She finds him attending his camp fire.

"We cant find Lori. And the others aren't back yet either."

"That dumb bitch must've gone off looking for em."

"What?"

"Yeah, She asked me to go. I told her I was done being an errand boy."

"And you didn't say anything?" Daryl remained quiet looking in the fire, almost regretting that he didn't. Carol turns to head back to camp. She stops and notices that his tent and everything else was set up. Carol looks at his tent, then back at him. That's when she realized that he was isolating himself from everyone again, including Gwen this time. She walks back to him.

"Don't do this. Please. I've already lost my girl." Daryl gets up pissed off.

"That wasn't my problem neither." He hisses at her walking away to his tent. Carol runs back to camp. Their everyone was standing outside the RV, frantically looking for Lori.

"She's not at the barn."

"I checked the yards." Shane and T-Dog say coming back to camp. Carl looks around and up at Shane.

"Well were is she?"

"She asked Daryl to go into town. Must've gone herself." Carol announces returning from his camp. Carl looks at Shane disappointed, and heads off back up to the house. Shane look at Dale.

"Did you know about this?"

"No."

"Look, just-did she take a gun?"

"I don't know. I wouldn't let her go put their alone." Shane gets in his car and speeds off to go look for her.

* * *

After words, their wasn't nothing much the group could do but wait. Carol finds Gwen in the RV again, sitting at the small table. She joins her in sitting across from her.

"Do you know why Daryl is trying to isolate himself from everyone now, including you?" Gwen smirks at Carol's question.

"I believe a reason why. I'm not sure if it's the entire reason." Carol remains quiet, waiting for Gwen to continue. "You know earlier when I said that I did something terrible, and that Daryl hates me for it."

"Of cores."

"I was pregnant." Carol's emotion drops "But not from Daryl, at least I wasn't sure it wasn't his." Carol covers her mouth.

"Then who was it?"

"Merle. The morning before Rick joined the group. He caught me alone in the woods. I stood no chance against him. I think the only reason why he did then, was because Daryl was out hunting." Gwen takes a deep breath "It wasn't till a while ago that I found out that I was pregnant. I knew all the problems it would bring to everyone, mainly Daryl and I. In a way I did wanted to keep it, `cause I always wanted a baby with him. But deep inside I knew it was Merles. And I didn't want to have to lie to Daryl, telling him that the baby was his when it really wasn't. As much as I didn't want to do it. I had to aboard it. It was not an easy decision to make, but I had to do it. For the safety of everybody and mine and Daryl's relationship."

"Oh my. So then what happened between you guys?"

"He found the abortion pills in my bag. We had a nasty argument….and we split up. I tried and tried to explain to him but he wont listen."

"His heart was broken, but it wasn't on your intention to do so. If he's ever gonna see that what you did was not on purpose, he's gonna have to hear it from someone else. To let him know, open his eyes and make him see that you still love him, and that he should forgive you."

"He's never gonna forgive me."

"Maybe not right away. But he'll come around. He loves you too much to just desert you like this. Give me a few minutes with him, and I'll see if I can help." Gwen looks up at Carol.

"You'd do that, for me?" Carol breaks a small smile.

"I lost my little girl. That is hard enough to deal with right now. I cant stand around and see you two separate like this. We all need someone to hold in days like these." Gwen smiles up at Carol.

"Thank you, Carol. Really." Carol turns and heads out the RV. She makes her way across the field and approaches Daryl's camp. Seeing that he was nowhere around. Carol has her own look around his camp. She come across a line of hanged squirrels. At the very end she spots the walker ear-necklace hanging. Carol stares at it for it bit wondering why he would have such thing around. Suddenly Carol is stunned by Daryl coming back out of nowhere.

"What are you doing?"

"Keeping and eye on you." She narrows her eyes at him.

"Aint you a peach? Gwen sent ya?"

"No." Daryl huffs and begins walking back to his camp fire. Carol walks after him. "I'm not gonna let you pull away. You've earned you place."

"If you spent half your time minding your daughters business instead of sticking your nose in everybody else's she'd still be alive!" Daryl snaps at her. Carol backs down.

"Go ahead."

"Go ahead and what?" He looked at her confused "Man just go! I don't want you here!" Carol ignores his demands and stands her ground. "You're a real piece of work, lady. What you gonna make this about my daddy or some crap like that? You're afraid. You're afraid `cause you're all alone. You got no husband, no daughter. You don't know what to do with yourself. You aint my problem! Sophia wasn't mine! All you had to do was keep an eye on her!" Daryl leans in about to hit her. Carol stands her ground, leaning back, preparing for the pain of the impact. He stops, realizing what he was about to do. Daryl takes a few steps back, almost regretting that he was about to do so. He knew she was damaged just as much as he was right now. So why was he gonna cause her more pain then she already was in?

"I may not have any of that anymore. But you still have Gwen. She loves you and still needs you, now more than ever. Don't push her away like you have with me and everyone else." Carol wakes away, back to camp, leaving Daryl by himself. In a way he didn't want to admit to himself that Carol was right. One, that he is isolating himself from everyone for his own reason. And two that he he's pretty much abandoned Gwen, for an honest mistake that was not on her intention to make.

Daryl had all night to think over a lot of things. He did miss having Gwen by his side lately in these tough few days. But their was that small part of him that didn't want to forgive her so easy. That pride of his.

* * *

Morning came, Daryl had woken up at dawn and headed over to the RV. Some of the group members were already waking up. He enters the RV and sees Gwen still sleeping on the bench of the small table. Dale was awake doing the bed in the back. Andrea was sitting across from Gwen cleaning her gun. Daryl doesn't say a word to anybody. He places a Cherokee rose on the table right by Gwen and heads out. Andrea and Dale exchange looks wondering what was that all about. After Andrea finished cleaning her gun, she heads out. Not long, Gwen moves around and wakes up. The first thing she sees is the rose right on the table by her, she grabs it, looking at it in wonder. Dale looks back at her.

"Daryl stopped by. Dropped it off a while ago." A smile grows of Gwen's face, she knew what that particular flower meant to him, and for him to give it to someone could only mean two things. One he cared for the person he was giving it to. And two was his sign of hope. Knowing Daryl all to well, Gwen knew that it mean both.

"Did he say anything?"

"Nope. Just set it down and headed back out." Gwen puts on her vest, puts the rose in one of her vest pockets and heads out. "Thanks Dale." It doesn't take Gwen long after leaving the RV that she found Daryl near by with Shane and T-Dog by the car. They were loading up some equipment in the back, and arming themselves. Gwen approaches the men.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"Rick and Glenn haven't came back with Hershel. Were going out to get them." Shane explained. Gwen and Daryl exchange looks. Andrea joins them handing T-Dog a water canine.

"Guys." She points out the fields. They all turn to see Hershel's red pickup driving up. As the pickup stops by the front of them house. Everyone inside the house, come out, joining everyone else who had gathered around. Rick was the first to come out, he was greeted by Carl and Lori. Hershel and Glenn came out after. Maggie sees her father is fine and runs to Glenn's arms, happy to see he's safe.

"Patricia prepare the shed for surgery." Hershel demands as he and Patricia head inside. Rick and Lori begin whispering to each other, about Lori's attempt to find them on her own. Standing next to Daryl, Gwen looks at him.

"Thanks for the rose." He turns to look at her but says nothing. Gwen saw that he had a calmer look on his face. Another step towards forgiving her. The atmosphere is frozen when T-Dog blurts out.

"Who the hell is that?" Everyone look in the backseat of the pickup. Their was a boy, blindfolded and unconscious.

"That's Randall." Glenn answered. Everyone gathers around the truck to get a better look of the unconscious boy.

"If everyone could meet me in the house. I'd like to explain what happened, and what the situation is. Hershel is gonna fix Randall's leg, see what we could do with him after." Rick explained. Rick and Shane take the boy to the shed in the back so Hershel could begin work on him. Everyone slowly joined him inside. Everyone but Gwen and Daryl. The two stood by the pickup not saying a word.

"You know I'm not gonna forgive you so easily." Daryl broke the silence.

"Its okay. I don't expect you to. You're speaking to me, that all that matters." Daryl remains quiet. "If you still need your space, I understand."

"No, jus- let me wrap my head around all this."

"I'll be inside." Gwen slides her hand down Daryl's arm and heads inside.

As she entered the house, the meeting had already started. Their was already tension in the air between Rick and Shane.

"We couldn't just leave him behind. He would of bled out, If he lived that long."

"It got bad in town." Glenn added, with little to no emotion.

"What do we do with him?" Andrea spoke out. Just then Hershel comes in, from repairing Randall's leg.

"I repaired his calf muscles as best I can, but he'll probably have nerve damage. Wont be on his feet for at least a week."

"When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way." Rick concluded. Gwen narrows her eyes, not liking the idea.

"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?"

"He'll have a chance." Gwen turns to the door as Daryl comes in joining the meeting. He greets Carol and Gwen with a small smile. He stands next to Gwen as the meeting continued with Shane.

"So were just gonna let him go? He knows were we are."

"He was blindfolded the whole way here. He's not a threat." Rick argued.

"Not a threat. How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just aint gonna come looking for him?" Shane argued back, getting aggravated.

"They left him for dead. No one is looking."

"We should still post a guard." T-Dog suggested, not fully trusting the boy.

"He's out cold right now, will be for hours." Hershel looked at him.

"You know, I'm gonna get him some flowers and candy. Look at this, folks-we back in fantasyland." Shane sarcastically says walking towards the front door.

"You know we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet. Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all-this is my farm. Now I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do use both a favor.-keep your mouth shut." Hershel had set the line pretty clear. Shane only looks at him and storms out.

"Look, we're not gonna do anything about it today. Lets just cool off." Rick dismissed the meeting with tension high already. Everyone gets up and heads their own direction. Gwen heads out with Daryl close behind.


	9. Another Shot

**Desert Eagle**

**For whoever is still reading this, sorry that the chapter is short. But with only a few episodes left of season 2 and suspension rising. I wanna put in some passion time with Gwen and Daryl before everything goes south. Its goes pretty fast so enjoy this short ass chapter!**

_Setting- 18 Miles Out_

Chapter 9 Another Shot

Gwen's POV: Its been weeks since Rick and Glenn brought the boy Randall to the farm. Seeing as nobody trusted him alone. He was kept in the shed with someone on watch at all times. On the brighter side, Daryl and I have made tremendous progress. He's let me rejoin him out in his camp. Since the days have been getting colder, we've slept closer than ever to keep warm. I'd be lying if I said, I didn't miss sleeping next to him. Still, he kept himself isolated from everyone else back in camp.

It was my turn to keep watch on Randall. In a way I felt bad about leaving him out in the middle of nowhere with a wounded leg. He was just a kid, I think this kid needed a second chance, to prove himself to us that he'll be loyal. But I felt like I was the only one who felt bad for the kid. Everyone else wanted him gone, or worse, dead.

I stood outside the shed with my Beretta in hand. Now that tension has been rising and after what had happened at the barn. We were all able to carry our guns one again.

"Hay, Hay can I get some water? Please, I'm really thirsty." The boy, Randall called out. I didn't wanna leave my post. But I also did wanna be responsible for being the cause of his death. So I go get him a glass of water and enter the shed, feeding it to him, since his hands were handcuffed to a pole. He takes a good amount to drink, then looks at me. "Thanks." I didn't say anything, but got up and headed to the door. "What are they gonna do to me?" I stop before I opened the door, looking back at him.

"I don't know."

"You're friends. They don't like me much do they?"

"Look, kid, I'm not suppose to be talking to you. I'm not even suppose to be in here."

"Their gonna kill me. I know it." Their was a bit of silence "I can tell that you don't completely agree with that. Can you help me out. I mean you no ."

"Just because I consider other options, for your fate. Doesn't mean everyone else agrees. We all have different options for you. But in the end, I'm not the one making the decision. If I wanna keep my place in the group, I cant consider anything. Sorry. Its not my call to make." Gwen walks back out. She was about to lock the door, when she sees Rick and Shane inches from here.

"Why were you in their?" Rick questions Gwen, giving her a serious look.

"The kid was thirsty. I didn't wanna get blamed for his death." Shane smirks.

"You should of just let him then." Rick looks at him annoyed.

"Were not animals, Shane. it's a slow, horrible way to let a human being die."

"Yeah, like leaving him out in the middle of nowhere with a busted leg is any better. Rick why not just end it, man, quick and painless. Before he finds his buddies, god knows how many other men he's got back at his camp. Next thing you know we have a war on our hands."

"Shane, we already went over this. Were not killing him. Were gonna blindfold him, throw in some loud music and put him in the back of the car. He wouldn't even know were we end up, to drop him off." Shane scoffs and enters the shed, with Rick behind. Not being needed, Gwen walks off back to Daryl's camp. She finds him moving some stuff around. He sees her approaching, but continues about his business.

"Shift over already?"

"It was cut short. Rick and Shane are taking Randall about 18 miles out of here." She pauses "He's not fully recovered yet. His chances of surviving out there are very slim. I think we should wait till he's fully recovered." Daryl stops what he was doing and leans up looking at her.

"Would you rather have him stay here and become a bother to everyone?"

"He's just a kid. He cant do much harm."

"He shot at Rick and Glenn. He might of missed, but his intentions were pretty clear. So who knows what else the little prick is capable of."

"With a busted leg, I don't think he can do much."

"Not right now. What's to say he wont shoot at us the moment his leg is better? Or anytime for that matter?"

"So leaving him out for the walkers is better?" Daryl shrugs "So then what if he finds his camp and brings them here. Were gonna have a war on our hands. I mean who knows how many men he's got or the type of weapons they have."

"If it comes down to that, I'm willing to fight." Gwen smiles and hugs him tightly. Daryl hesitates for a second but hugs her back, knowing he's missed holding her this close.

"You know, you never did tell me." Gwen looks up at him "Why did you take me back." He looks at her before taking her hand and walking off the farm. Not a word was said until they reached a small pond. He lets go of her hand as she stared out into the tinted green water.

"I don't understand." She looks back at him. He points his head out to the water.

"Empty. Surrounded by many things, but empty all round. Its how I was feeling when I found out about the baby. About what you said. About being apart from you. After we found Sophia. I felt like nothing mattered in the world. Its why I left the camp." He paused, Gwen didn't take her eyes off him. "You know its almost gonna be four years since we got together." Gwen nodes, fighting to keep her tears back "All those years of fighting and being by my side. I never realized how quiet and lonely it is without you." He pauses one more time "I'm willing to give us another shot." He looked down, feeling really insecure. Without hesitation, Gwen gives him an amours hug. After weeks of anger, frustration and being apart. Gwen and Daryl share their first intimate kiss. "I'm crazy about you." He whispers to her while laying gentle kisses on her neck.

"Doesn't that scare you?"

"Yup, a lot."

"Yeah, why?" Daryl stops and looks at her.

"Cuz I don't think you realize how much power you have over me."

"Awe. I think your beautiful, and brave, and I want you."

"Really?" Gwen chuckles, returning some pecks herself. "Do you love me?" Gwen stops and looks at him. She moves some of his growing out bangs back.

"Yes, I do." They kiss again.


End file.
